However, in a meta-analysis of 63 studies, Donovan and Radosevich (1999) found that performance post-training was somewhat better only for relatively simple tasks (e.g., rotary pursuit task) versus relatively complex tasks (e.g., air traffic control task). When these authors clustered tasks in to four different types ranging from simple physical tasks with limited mental requirement to complex tasks that required both physical and mental skills and abilities the effect size dropped from 0.97 to 0.07! Additional analyses indicated a negative correlation between effect size and overall complexity (r = −0.25, p < .05) while there was no significant correlation with mental and physical requirements of the task (p > .35) suggesting that increases in task complexity may eradicate the benefits of spacing practice sessions.
- very spicy take, especially for a 30y/o meta analysis, should read
- some video I recently watched brought up that #spaced-repetition works because that's how you overcome short term memory item limitation...this tastes like a possible explanation; b/c what's the point if the task is so complex that working memory is overwhelmed anyways (well but this is all just cognitivist confabulation)