HCD.10:2 - Problem

The common shortcut is calendar imitation: schedule reviews at attractive intervals and call them spacing, retrieval, transfer, and retention at once. Dates alone do not identify repeated practice episodes, intervening use, sources, support, or the inference the later observation can sustain.

A second shortcut is random difficulty. Cases are shuffled or made harder without a target discrimination. A novice who cannot yet perform the basic operation receives mixed tasks, reduced help, and an inaccessible source; failure is then blamed on weak capability.

A third shortcut treats support withdrawal as the definition of progress. This can remove a tool or reference that belongs in later Work, or convert an AI-supported task into a different task without saying so. Equipped performance, independent contribution, changed-support performance, transfer, and retention remain distinct questions.