Recent research has suggested that students prefer restudying over retrieval practice when learning difficult materials, despite the latter being a more effective learning strategy. The current study investigated whether an instructional intervention can improve the use of retrieval practice for both easy and difficult materials. In Experiment 1, after initial learning of each item, participants rated their perceived mental effort (PME) and judgment of learning (JOL) for each item. Then, participants chose whether to restudy or take retrieval practice for that item. The results showed that participants chose to take retrieval practice less frequently for difficult items compared to easy ones. Furthermore, participants’ ratings of PME and JOL sequentially mediated the relationship between item difficulty and their learning strategy choices. Specifically, difficult items resulted in higher levels of PME, which in turn led to lower JOL, ultimately reducing the likelihood of choosing retrieval practice. In Experiment 2, half of the participants received an instructional intervention, which revealed that while students prefer restudying for difficult items, retrieval practice benefits both easy and difficult items in long-term retention. The remaining half did not receive such intervention and were designated as the control group. The results indicated that, compared to the control group, students who received the intervention increased the odds of choosing retrieval practice for both types of materials after the intervention. The findings of this study suggest that students can be supported to use retrieval practice regardless of item difficulty.

最近的研究表明，学生在学习困难的材料时更喜欢重新学习而不是检索练习，尽管后者是一种更有效的学习策略。目前的研究调查了教学干预是否可以改善对简单和困难材料的检索练习的使用。在实验 1 中，在对每个项目进行初始学习后，参与者对他们对每个项目的感知脑力 （PME） 和学习判断 （JOL） 进行评分。然后，参与者选择是重新学习还是对该项目进行检索练习。结果表明，与简单的项目相比，参与者选择对困难的项目进行检索练习的频率较低。此外，参与者对 PME 和 JOL 的评分依次中介了项目难度与其学习策略选择之间的关系。具体来说，困难的项目导致更高水平的 PME，这反过来又导致较低的 JOL，最终降低了选择检索实践的可能性。在实验 2 中，一半的参与者接受了教学干预，这表明虽然学生更喜欢重新学习困难的项目，但检索练习对长期保留的简单和困难的项目都有好处。其余一半没有接受此类干预，被指定为对照组。结果表明，与对照组相比，接受干预的学生在干预后为两种材料选择检索练习的几率增加。这项研究的结果表明，无论项目难度如何，都可以支持学生使用检索练习。