Research has demonstrated that presenting learning examples at the same time (simultaneous presentations) and presenting learning examples apart in time (spaced presentations) facilitate children’s generalization of knowledge. Simultaneous presentations promote generalization at an immediate test by making learning easy. In contrast, spaced presentations support learners’ generalization over time by integrating desirably difficult learning conditions. Given that these learning schedules promote generalization at different points in time via different mechanisms, we asked: Can these presentation schedules be integrated to optimize children’s generalization across time scales? In this talk, I will provide an overview of an over 10-year journey to answer this question. This work revealed striking developmental differences between children and adults, suggesting that optimizing learning for children is likely to be more complex. Directions for future challenges for elucidating how to optimally challenge children will be provided.

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