ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION e desirable diculties perspective (E. L. Bjork & Bjork, 2011; R. A. Bjork, 1988, 1992; Bjork & Bjork, 2006; R. A. Bjork & Linn, 2006) and the region of proximal learning framework (e.g., Kornell & Metcalfe, 2006; Metcalfe, 2002, 2009; Metcalfe & Kornell, 2005) appear, at least on the surface, to be at odds. e desirable diculties perspective says that individuals should make things hard on themselves (but in a good way). Instructors should not spare the learners, but instead they should challenge them and make learning dicult. People should embrace dif-culties, because it is through those diculties that long-term learning occurs. e term desirable is added to diculties, but even so the message is that learning should be a challenge. e region of proximal learning framework proposes that learning is optimized by having the learner study materials that are not very dicult, given the individual’s current state of learning. Indeed, they should be the easiest possible as-yet-unlearned items-just beyond what the learner has already fully mastered, but not much beyond. Too much diculty, within this framework, is seen as maladaptive and potentially disheartening.
