Sometimes, the easiest path isn't the best one. In fact, when it comes to learning and memory, choosing the harder path often leads to significantly better results. This isn't just about grit, it's about a fascinating cognitive principle called desirable difficulties.
Ever found yourself breezing through flashcards, feeling like you’ve got everything down, only to forget it all the next day? I certainly have. That feeling of effortless recognition can be deceptive. The truth is, if learning feels too easy, your brain might not be working hard enough to create lasting memories.
What are desirable difficulties in learning?
Desirable difficulties are learning conditions that make initial learning slower and more effortful, but ultimately lead to stronger, longer-lasting memory. This concept was developed by cognitive psychologists Robert and Elizabeth Bjork, who found that certain "difficulties" encountered during study can actually improve long-term retention and transfer of knowledge. It's about making your brain work harder to retrieve or process information, which strengthens the memory trace.
Think of it like exercise. A comfortable stroll might feel good, but it won't build muscle like lifting weights or a challenging run. Similarly, in learning, a bit of mental "strain" is exactly what your memory needs to grow stronger.
Why does making learning harder make it stick?
Making learning harder forces your brain into deeper, more active processing, leading to more robust memory formation. When you struggle a bit to recall an answer, your brain isn't just passively recognizing information; it's actively searching for and reconstructing it. This active retrieval process creates new neural pathways and strengthens existing ones, making it easier to access that information in the future.
One of the most powerful desirable difficulties is retrieval practice, also known as the testing effect. A 2008 study by Karpicke and Roediger demonstrated that students who repeatedly tested themselves on material retained significantly more information over time than those who just reread the material. Each time you successfully retrieve information, you're not just demonstrating what you know, you're actually learning it more deeply. This is a core reason why flashcards are so effective, and you can learn more about it in our post on the testing effect: why being tested helps you learn.
How can you apply desirable difficulties to your flashcards?
You can intentionally build these beneficial challenges into your study routine to supercharge your memory. Here are some practical ways to do it with flashcards:
Embrace spaced repetition. This is perhaps the most classic example of a desirable difficulty, and it’s built right into Vocabbie, an AI flashcard app for iOS and Android. Instead of reviewing everything all the time, spaced repetition schedules reviews for just before you're about to forget. This forces you to retrieve the information when it's slightly harder to recall, making the retrieval attempt more potent. When you get a card wrong, it gets shown to you sooner, increasing the difficulty (and the learning) for that specific item. Find out more about why this works in our article on spaced repetition: why your brain needs it.
Vary your study context. Don't just study in one place, like your quiet desk. Review your flashcards on your commute, at a coffee shop, or even while walking. Changing the environment forces your brain to create more diverse retrieval cues, making the information less dependent on a single context for recall. This also means the information will be more accessible regardless of where you need to use it.
Interleave your topics. Instead of studying one subject for hours, mix different topics or subjects during a single study session. For example, if you're learning Spanish, don't just do verb conjugations for an hour. Mix in some vocabulary, then switch to grammar rules, then back to verbs. This forces your brain to constantly switch gears and prevents rote memorization of patterns within a single topic. It feels harder at the moment, but leads to better discrimination and retention of distinct concepts. You can dive deeper into this method in our post on interleaving: the study technique most people ignore.
Turn recognition into recall. Many traditional flashcards are set up as a question on one side and a direct answer on the other. To increase the desirable difficulty, try to elaborate on the answer before flipping the card. Don't just say the one-word answer. Explain it in your own words. Why is this the answer? What are its implications? This deeper processing creates more connections in your brain.
Explain the "why." When you answer a flashcard, don't just state the fact. Ask yourself "why" it's true or "how" it works. For instance, if a card asks for the definition of "photosynthesis," don't just say "process plants use to make food." Also, briefly explain how that process works (using sunlight, water, carbon dioxide). This adds an extra layer of difficulty that significantly deepens your understanding and memory.
Use partial cues. Instead of full questions, sometimes use only a hint or a keyword to prompt your memory. This makes the initial retrieval more challenging, but strengthens the pathways when you succeed. Vocabbie can help with this by allowing you to create different types of cards or by using its AI features to generate varied questions for the same content.
The core idea is to make your brain work just hard enough to solidify the memory, without becoming so frustrated that you give up. The discomfort you feel when recalling a slightly difficult flashcard isn't a sign of failure; it's a sign of powerful learning happening. So, the next time you're reviewing your flashcards, lean into that challenge. Your future self, with its stronger, more resilient memory, will thank you.