The effects of interleaved practice

The benefit of self-testing and interleaving for synthesizing concepts across multiple physiology texts

A testing-based learning strategy is one that relies on the act of recalling (i.e., testing) information after exposure, and interleaving is a strategy in which the learning materials are presented in a serial order (e.g., texts 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3) versus a blocked order (e.g., texts 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3). Although both learning strategies have been thoroughly investigated, few studies have examined their additive effect with higher-order cognitive tasks such as the ability to identify themes across multiple texts, and none of those did so using physiology information. The purpose of the present study was to compare recall and thematic processing across five different physiology texts. Participants were randomly assigned to learn the texts using one of the following four learning strategies: 1) study-study-study (S-S-S) using a blocked order, 2) S-S-S using an interleaved order, 3) study-test-study (S-T-S) using a blocked order, and 4) S-T-S using an interleaved order. Over the course of the following week, the S-T-S groups had more stable recall of key text ideas compared with the S-S-S groups, and the S-T-S group had more stable recall of thematic information than the S-S-S group when interleaving was used as the presentation order.

Optimizing Music Learning: Exploring How Blocked and Interleaved Practice Schedules Affect Advanced Performance

Repetition is the most commonly used practice strategy by musicians. Although blocks of repetition continue to be suggested in the pedagogical literature, work in the field of cognitive psychology suggests that repeated events receive less processing, thereby reducing the potential for long-term learning. Motor skill learning and sport psychology research offer an alternative. Instead of using a blocked practice schedule, with practice completed on one task before moving on to the next task, an interleaved schedule can be used, in which practice is frequently alternated between tasks. This frequent alternation involves more effortful processing, resulting in increased long-term learning. The finding that practicing in an interleaved schedule leads to better retention than practicing in a blocked schedule has been labeled the “contextual interference effect.” While the effect has been observed across a wide variety of fields, few studies have researched this phenomenon in a music-learning context, despite the broad potential for application to music practice. This study compared the effects of blocked and interleaved practice schedules on advanced clarinet performance in an ecologically valid context. Ten clarinetists were given one concerto exposition and one technical excerpt to practice in a blocked schedule (12 min per piece) and a second concerto exposition and technical excerpt to practice in an interleaved schedule (3 min per piece, alternating until a total of 12 min of practice were completed on each piece). Participants sight-read the four pieces prior to practice and performed them at the end of practice and again one day later. The sight-reading and two performance run-throughs of each piece were recorded and given to three professional clarinetists to rate using a percentage scale. Overall, whenever there was a ratings difference between the conditions, pieces practiced in the interleaved schedule were rated better than those in the blocked schedule, although results varied across raters. Participant questionnaires also revealed that the interleaved practice schedule had positive effects on factors such as goal setting, focus, and mistake identification. Taken together, these results suggest that an interleaved practice schedule may be a more effective practice strategy than continuous repetition in a music-learning context.

Do the Best Teachers Get the Best Ratings?

We review recent studies that asked: do college students learn relatively more from teachers whom they rate highly on student evaluation forms? Recent studies measured learning at two-time points. When learning was measured with a test at the end of the course, the teachers who got the highest ratings were the ones who contributed the most to learning. But when learning was measured as performance in subsequent related courses, the teachers who had received relatively low ratings appeared to have been most effective. We speculate about why these effects occurred: making a course difficult in productive ways may decrease ratings but enhance learning. Despite their limitations, we do not suggest abandoning student ratings, but do recommend that student evaluation scores should not be the sole basis for evaluating college teaching and they should be recognized for what they are.

An In Vivo Study of Self-Regulated Study Sequencing in Introductory Psychology Courses

Study sequence can have a profound influence on learning. In this study we investigated how students decide to sequence their study in a naturalistic context and whether their choices result in improved learning. In the study reported here, 2061 undergraduate students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology course completed an online homework tutorial on measures of central tendency, a topic relevant to an exam that counted towards their grades. One group of students was enabled to choose their own study sequence during the tutorial (Self-Regulated group), while the other group of students studied the same materials in sequences chosen by other students (Yoked group). Students who chose their sequence of study showed a clear tendency to block their study by concept, and this tendency was positively associated with subsequent exam performance. In the Yoked group, study sequence had no effect on exam performance. These results suggest that despite findings that blocked study is maladaptive when assigned by an experimenter, it may actually be adaptive when chosen by the learner in a naturalistic context.

Testing the Efficacy of MyPsychLab to Replace Traditional Instruction in a Hybrid Course

Online course-packs are marketed as improving grades in introductory-level coursework, yet it is unknown whether these course-packs can effectively replace, as opposed to supplement, in-class instruction. This study compared learning outcomes for Introductory Psychology students in hybrid and traditional sections, with hybrid sections replacing 30% of in-class time with online homework using the MyPsychLab course-pack and Blackboard course management system. Data collected over two semesters ( N = 730 students in six hybrid and nine traditional sections of ∼50 students) indicated equivalent final-grade averages and rates of class attrition. Although exam averages did not differ by class format, exam grades in hybrid sections decreased to a significantly greater extent over the course of the semester than in traditional sections. MyPsychLab homework grades in hybrid sections correlated with exam grades, but were relatively low (66.4%) due to incomplete work—suggesting that hybrid students may have engaged with course materials less than traditional students. Faculty who taught in both formats noted positive features of hybrid teaching, but preferred traditional classes, citing challenges in time management and student usage of instructional technology. Although hybrid students often reported difficulties or displeasure in working online about half of them indicated interest in taking other hybrid classes.

Spaced Repetition Promotes Efficient and Effective Learning

Concern that students in the United States are less proficient in mathematics, science, and reading than their peers in other countries has led some to question whether American students spend enough time in school. Instead of debating the amount of time that should be spent in school (and on schoolwork), this article addresses how the available instructional time might be optimally utilized via the scheduling of review or practice. Hundreds of studies in cognitive and educational psychology have demonstrated that spacing out repeated encounters with the material over time produces superior long-term learning, compared with repetitions that are massed together. Also, incorporating tests into spaced practice amplifies the benefits. Spaced review or practice enhances diverse forms of learning, including memory, problem solving, and generalization to new situations. Spaced practice is a feasible and cost-effective way to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of learning, and has tremendous potential to improve educational outcomes. The article also discusses barriers to adopting spaced practice, recent developments, and their possible implications.

Manipulation of cognitive load variables and impact on auscultation test performance

Health profession educators have identified auscultation skill as a learning need for health professional students. This article explores the application of cognitive load theory (CLT) to designing cardiac and respiratory auscultation skill instruction for senior-level undergraduate nursing students. Three experiments assessed student auscultation performance following instructional manipulations of the three primary components of cognitive load: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane load. Study 1 evaluated the impact of intrinsic cognitive load by varying the number of diagnoses learned in one instruction session; Study 2 evaluated the impact of extraneous cognitive load by providing students with single or multiple examples of diagnoses during instruction; and Study 3 evaluated the impact of germane cognitive load by employing mixed or blocked sequences of diagnostic examples to students. Each of the three studies presents results that support CLT as explaining the influence of different types of cognitive processing on auscultation skill acquisition. We conclude with a discussion regarding CLT's usefulness as a framework for education and education research in the health professions.

Putting category learning in order: Category structure and temporal arrangement affect the benefit of interleaved over blocked study

Recent research in inductive category learning has demonstrated that interleaved study of category exemplars results in better performance than does studying each category in separate blocks. However, the questions of how the category structure influences this advantage and how simultaneous presentation interacts with the advantage are open issues. In this article, we present three experiments. The first experiment indicates that the advantage of interleaved over blocked study is modulated by the structure of the categories being studied. More specifically, interleaved study results in better generalization for categories with high within- and between-category similarity, whereas blocked presentation results in better generalization for categories with low within- and between-category similarity. In Experiment 2, we present evidence that when presented simultaneously, between-category comparisons (interleaved presentation) result in a performance advantage for high-similarity categories, but no differences were found for low-similarity categories. In Experiment 3, we directly compared simultaneous and successive presentation of low-similarity categories. We again found an overall benefit for blocked study with these categories. Overall, these results are consistent with the proposal that interleaving emphasizes differences between categories, whereas blocking emphasizes the discovery of commonalities among objects within the same category.

Learning Versus Performance

The primary goal of instruction should be to facilitate long-term learning—that is, to create relatively permanent changes in comprehension, understanding, and skills of the types that will support long-term retention and transfer. During the instruction or training process, however, what we can observe and measure is performance, which is often an unreliable index of whether the relatively long-term changes that constitute learning have taken place. The time-honored distinction between learning and performance dates back decades, spurred by early animal and motor-skills research that revealed that learning can occur even when no discernible changes in performance are observed. More recently, the converse has also been shown—specifically, that improvements in performance can fail to yield significant learning—and, in fact, that certain manipulations can have opposite effects on learning and performance. We review the extant literature in the motor- and verbal-learning domains that necessitates the distinction between learning and performance. In addition, we examine research in metacognition that suggests that people often mistakenly interpret their performance during acquisition as a reliable guide to long-term learning. These and other considerations suggest that the learning–performance distinction is critical and has vast practical and theoretical implications.

Effects of interleaved and blocked study on delayed test of category learning generalization

Studying different concepts by frequently alternating between them (i.e., interleaving), improves discriminative contrast between different categories, while studying each concept in separate blocks emphasizes the similarities within each category. Interleaved study has been shown to improve learning of high similarity categories by increasing between-category comparison, while blocked study improves learning of low similarity categories by increasing within-category comparison. In addition, interleaved study presents greater temporal spacing between repetitions of each category compared to blocked study, which might present long-term memory benefits. In this study we asked if the benefits of temporal spacing would interact with the benefits of sequencing for making comparisons when testing was delayed, particularly for low similarity categories. Blocked study might be predicted to promote noticing similarities across members of the same category and result in short-term benefits. However, the increase in temporal delay between repetitions inherent to interleaved study might benefit both types of categories when tested after a longer retention interval. Participants studied categories either interleaved or blocked and were tested immediately and 24 h after study. We found an interaction between schedule of study and the type of category studied, which is consistent with the differential emphasis promoted by each sequential schedule. However, increasing the retention interval did not modulate this interaction or resulted in improved performance for interleaved study. Overall, this indicates that the benefit of interleaving is not primarily due to temporal spacing during study, but rather due to the cross-category comparisons that interleaving facilitates. We discuss the benefits of temporal spacing of repetitions in the context of sequential study and how it can be integrated with the attentional bias hypothesis proposed by Carvalho and Goldstone (2014a).

FLS skill acquisition: a comparison of blocked vs interleaved practice

INTRODUCTION

Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) certification is required for general surgery. The recommended practice for learning FLS is to practice tasks one at a time until proficient (blocked practice). Learning theory suggests that interleaved practice, a method in which tasks are rotated rather than learned one at a time, may result in superior learning.

METHOD

Residents were randomized into 1 of 2 groups: blocked practice or interleaved practice. We compared the performance of residents across groups over 20 trials of each of 4 FLS tasks (peg transfer, pattern cut, extracorporeal suture, and intracorporeal suture). Four weeks later, participants returned to the laboratory and completed 2 additional trials of each of the 4 tasks.

RESULTS

Performance on each of the tasks improved with increased practice. The interleaved group showed significantly better performance on the peg transfer task; trends favoring the interleaved group resulted for the other tasks. Standardized mean differences in favor of the interleaved group were substantial both at the end of practice and at follow-up (with the exception of the pattern cut).

CONCLUSION

Interleaved practice appears to have advantages over blocked practice in developing and retaining FLS skills. We encourage others to experiment with the method to confirm our findings.

Why interleaving enhances inductive learning: the roles of discrimination and retrieval

Kornell and Bjork (Psychological science 19:585-592, 2008) found that interleaving exemplars of different categories enhanced inductive learning of the concepts based on those exemplars. They hypothesized that the benefit of mixing exemplars from different categories is that doing so highlights differences between the categories. Kang and Pashler (Applied cognitive psychology 26:97-103, 2012) obtained results consistent with this discriminative-contrast hypothesis: Interleaving enhanced inductive learning, but temporal spacing, which does not highlight category differences, did not. We further tested the discriminative-contrast hypothesis by examining the effects of interleaving and spacing, as well as their combined effects. In three experiments, using photographs of butterflies and birds as the stimuli, temporal spacing was harmful when it interrupted the juxtaposition of interleaved categories, even when total spacing was held constant, supporting the discriminative-contrast hypothesis. Temporal spacing also had value, however, when it did not interrupt discrimination processing.

Understanding the Distributed Practice Effect

The distributed practice effect is one of the most researched memory effects in cognitive psychology. Beneficial distributed practice effects for long-term retention have been demonstrated in different domains and they are remarkably large in size, too. However, despite strong effects, this research field still lacks a unified theory offering explanations for a wide range of findings. This article reviews empirical studies on the distributed practice effect that have immediate relevance for educational settings. Against the backdrop of this review, the article discusses theory candidates and ways of specifying them for empirical tests using nonstandard statistical methods. I conclude that future studies will have to fine-tune theories to strengthen the significance of empirical results and to allow for better recommendations to educators. This promises to increase the enthusiasm to systematically implement distributed practice in instruction routines and bridge psychological research and educational practice.

Same, varied, or both? Contextual support aids young children in generalizing category labels

Children have a difficult time in generalizing among changes in background context. We examined the role of two processes that may aid in generalizing category labels in new contexts. In this study, 2-year-old children were taught novel object categories in one type of contextual condition and were tested for category generalization in a new context. In Experiment 1, children (N=48) learned in one of three conditions: (a) all category instances presented in the same context, (b) all category instances presented in varied contexts, or (c) some category instances presented in the same context and some presented in varied contexts. In Experiment 2, children (N=48) learned in one of three conditions, all of which included presentations in the same context and varied contexts but differed in order. Results from both experiments revealed that children were significantly more likely to choose the correct object when training was in both same and varied contexts regardless of order. The results suggest that contextual factors, by providing both support for aggregation and support for decontextualization, contribute to word learning and generalization for novice word learners.

Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques

Many students are being left behind by an educational system that some people believe is in crisis. Improving educational outcomes will require efforts on many fronts, but a central premise of this monograph is that one part of a solution involves helping students to better regulate their learning through the use of effective learning techniques. Fortunately, cognitive and educational psychologists have been developing and evaluating easy-to-use learning techniques that could help students achieve their learning goals. In this monograph, we discuss 10 learning techniques in detail and offer recommendations about their relative utility. We selected techniques that were expected to be relatively easy to use and hence could be adopted by many students. Also, some techniques (e.g., highlighting and rereading) were selected because students report relying heavily on them, which makes it especially important to examine how well they work. The techniques include elaborative interrogation, self-explanation, summarization, highlighting (or underlining), the keyword mnemonic, imagery use for text learning, rereading, practice testing, distributed practice, and interleaved practice.

To offer recommendations about the relative utility of these techniques, we evaluated whether their benefits generalize across four categories of variables: learning conditions, student characteristics, materials, and criterion tasks. Learning conditions include aspects of the learning environment in which the technique is implemented, such as whether a student studies alone or with a group. Student characteristics include variables such as age, ability, and level of prior knowledge. Materials vary from simple concepts to mathematical problems to complicated science texts. Criterion tasks include different outcome measures that are relevant to student achievement, such as those tapping memory, problem solving, and comprehension.

We attempted to provide thorough reviews for each technique, so this monograph is rather lengthy. However, we also wrote the monograph in a modular fashion, so it is easy to use. In particular, each review is divided into the following sections: General description of the technique and why it should work How general are the effects of this technique?  2a. Learning conditions  2b. Student characteristics  2c. Materials  2d. Criterion tasks Effects in representative educational contexts Issues for implementation Overall assessment

The review for each technique can be read independently of the others, and particular variables of interest can be easily compared across techniques.

To foreshadow our final recommendations, the techniques vary widely with respect to their generalizability and promise for improving student learning. Practice testing and distributed practice received high utility assessments because they benefit learners of different ages and abilities and have been shown to boost students’ performance across many criterion tasks and even in educational contexts. Elaborative interrogation, self-explanation, and interleaved practice received moderate utility assessments. The benefits of these techniques do generalize across some variables, yet despite their promise, they fell short of a high utility assessment because the evidence for their efficacy is limited. For instance, elaborative interrogation and self-explanation have not been adequately evaluated in educational contexts, and the benefits of interleaving have just begun to be systematically explored, so the ultimate effectiveness of these techniques is currently unknown. Nevertheless, the techniques that received moderate-utility ratings show enough promise for us to recommend their use in appropriate situations, which we describe in detail within the review of each technique.

Five techniques received a low utility assessment: summarization, highlighting, the keyword mnemonic, imagery use for text learning, and rereading. These techniques were rated as low utility for numerous reasons. Summarization and imagery use for text learning have been shown to help some students on some criterion tasks, yet the conditions under which these techniques produce benefits are limited, and much research is still needed to fully explore their overall effectiveness. The keyword mnemonic is difficult to implement in some contexts, and it appears to benefit students for a limited number of materials and for short retention intervals. Most students report rereading and highlighting, yet these techniques do not consistently boost students’ performance, so other techniques should be used in their place (e.g., practice testing instead of rereading).

Our hope is that this monograph will foster improvements in student learning, not only by showcasing which learning techniques are likely to have the most generalizable effects but also by encouraging researchers to continue investigating the most promising techniques. Accordingly, in our closing remarks, we discuss some issues for how these techniques could be implemented by teachers and students, and we highlight directions for future research.

Computer-based learning: interleaving whole and sectional representation of neuroanatomy

The large volume of material to be learned in biomedical disciplines requires optimizing the efficiency of instruction. In prior work with computer-based instruction of neuroanatomy, it was relatively efficient for learners to master whole anatomy and then transfer to learning sectional anatomy. It may, however, be more efficient to continuously integrate learning of whole and sectional anatomy. A study of computer-based learning of neuroanatomy was conducted to compare a basic transfer paradigm for learning whole and sectional neuroanatomy with a method in which the two forms of representation were interleaved (alternated). For all experimental groups, interactive computer programs supported an approach to instruction called adaptive exploration. Each learning trial consisted of time-limited exploration of neuroanatomy, self-timed testing, and graphical feedback. The primary result of this study was that interleaved learning of whole and sectional neuroanatomy was more efficient than the basic transfer method, without cost to long-term retention or generalization of knowledge to recognizing new images (Visible Human and MRI).

Self-regulated learning: beliefs, techniques, and illusions

Knowing how to manage one's own learning has become increasingly important in recent years, as both the need and the opportunities for individuals to learn on their own outside of formal classroom settings have grown. During that same period, however, research on learning, memory, and metacognitive processes has provided evidence that people often have a faulty mental model of how they learn and remember, making them prone to both misassessing and mismanaging their own learning. After a discussion of what learners need to understand in order to become effective stewards of their own learning, we first review research on what people believe about how they learn and then review research on how people's ongoing assessments of their own learning are influenced by current performance and the subjective sense of fluency. We conclude with a discussion of societal assumptions and attitudes that can be counterproductive in terms of individuals becoming maximally effective learners.

Effect of selected "desirable difficulty" learning strategies on the retention of physiology information

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of interleaving and expanding retrieval on the retention of physiology concepts. Participants (n = 189) read and then reread 30 immunology and reproductive physiology passages. Half of the participants read and then reread the passages in a blocked manner (e.g., a(1)a(2)a(3)b(1)b(2)b(3)), and the other half did so in an interleaved manner (e.g., a(1)b(1)b(2)a(2)a(3)b(3)). Participants were then repeatedly assessed, without feedback, after either a uniform or an expanding series of intervals. Half of the students from both the blocked and interleaved groups completed the assessments 1, 2, and 3 days after rereading the passages (uniform), whereas the other half completed the assessments immediately and 1 and 3 days after rereading the passages (expanding). All participants completed a final assessment 10 days after rereading the passages. There were no significant differences between the blocked and interleaved groups on any of the assessments, nor were there any significant interactions between the groups on any of the assessments. Those in the expanding retrieval group scored significantly higher than those in the uniform group on all four assessments (ANOVA; assessment 1: F = 35.12, P = 0.00; assessment 2: F = 13.88, P = 0.00; assessment 3: F = 10.87, P = 0.00; and assessment 4: F = 6.79, P = 0.01). Mean final assessment scores were 47.58 ± 19.81 and 40.50 ± 17.17 for the expanding and uniform groups, respectively. The results indicate that participants benefited more from expanding retrieval practice.

Expectancy of an open-book test decreases performance on a delayed closed-book test

Two experiments examined the influence of practice with, and the expectancy of, open-book tests (students viewed studied material while taking the test) versus closed-book tests (students completed the test without viewing the studied material) on delayed retention and transfer. Using GRE materials specifically designed for open-book testing, participants studied passages and then took initial open- or closed-book tests. Open-book testing led to better initial performance than closed-book testing, but on a delayed criterial (closed-book) test both types of testing produced similar retention after a two-day delay in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2 participants were informed in advance about the type of delayed criterial test to expect (open- or closed-book). Expecting an open-book test (relative to a closed-book test) decreased participants' time spent studying and their delayed test performance on closed-book comprehension and transfer tests, demonstrating that test expectancy can influence long-term learning. Expectancy of open-book tests may impair long-term retention and transfer compared to closed-book tests, despite superior initial performance on open-book tests and students' preference for open-book tests.