Difficulty and value of to-be-learned items determine which items children offload¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? More difficult word pairs were offloaded more than easier pairs; when difficulty was constant, higher-value pairs were offloaded more; with emphasized value, both difficulty and value determined offloading. → Alexander Skulmowski 2023

Evidence¶

Alexander Skulmowski 2023¶

Alexander Skulmowski. (2023). The Cognitive Architecture of Digital Externalization. Educational Psychology Review, 35:101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09818-1

q2 · i? · review · r3

Three studies of 11-year-old children memorizing word pairs on laptops (Dong et al., 2022, as reviewed here). In the first study, "More difficult (i.e., unrelated) word pairs were offloaded more than easier pairs, but an assigned value (one or five stars) did not affect offloading behavior." In a second study with constant difficulty, higher value increased offloading; a third study showed value and difficulty jointly determine offloading when value is emphasized.

"More difficult (i.e., unrelated) word pairs were offloaded more than easier pairs, but an assigned value (one or five stars) did not affect offloading behavior."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Metacognitive evaluations of effort and performance, rather than objective performance, drive spontaneous offloading — related
• Metacognitive confidence triggers intention offloading independently of objective memory need — related