Effortful, fluent-feeling experiences can create an illusion of learning: felt sense of learning is a poor gauge of actual learning¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r? · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Students in effortful active classes judged they were learning less even as they objectively learned more (Deslauriers et al., 2019, as reported). → Mario Brcic 2026 q2 i? Software engineers given an AI assistant on a coding task performed the task well but learned markedly less, scoring far lower afterward on the concepts behind the code (Shen and Tamkin, 2026, as reported). → Mario Brcic 2026 (2)

Evidence¶

Mario Brcic 2026¶

Mario Brcic, Stjepan Frljic. (2026). The Effortless Trap: Productive Struggle, AI, and the Illusion of Learning. Preprint. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26181 doi:10.48550/arxiv.2606.26181

q2 · i? · causal · r?

The article reports, citing Deslauriers et al. (2019), a controlled study in which students in effortful active classes felt they learned less while objectively learning more, grounding the effortless trap. No effect size is printed in the article.

"Students in effortful active classes judged that they were learning less even as they objectively learned more (Deslauriers et al., 2019), so fluent, AI-smoothed practice can feel most productive exactly when it teaches least."

Mario Brcic 2026 (2)¶

Mario Brcic, Stjepan Frljic. (2026). The Effortless Trap: Productive Struggle, AI, and the Illusion of Learning. Preprint. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26181

q2 · i? · theoretical · r2

The article reports, citing the Shen and Tamkin (2026) preprint (a randomized coding task, N=52 per its reference list), that engineers with an AI assistant performed the task well but learned markedly less afterward. No effect size is printed in the article.

"software engineers given an AI assistant on a coding task performed it well but learned markedly less, scoring far lower afterward on the concepts behind the code they had just produced (Shen and Tamkin, 2026)"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Fluent Illusions Mislead Self Assessment — related
• Learners Misjudge Spacing Benefits — a broader claim this one bears on
• Learners misjudge which learning strategies are effective — a broader claim this one bears on
• Rereading is less effective than retrieval practice — related
• A carefully engineered AI tutor produced more than twice the learning of a strong active-learning class, in less time (Kestin et al., 2025, as reported) — related
• Students in active learning environments learned more but felt they learned less, mistaking mental effort for failure — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Anonymous asynchronous online peer review of writing: lower-skill students sometimes felt inferior yet increased determination, while better writers felt they learned less — related
• Students in active classrooms reported lower feeling of learning than students in passive lectures (0.56 SD lower, P < 0.001) — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• An early-semester presentation on fluency and feeling of learning improved students' attitudes toward active learning — related