The effects of interleaved practice

@article{Taylor2010TheEO,
  title={The effects of interleaved practice},
  author={Kelli M Taylor and Doug Rohrer},
  journal={Applied Cognitive Psychology},
  year={2010},
  volume={24},
  pages={837-848}
}
Previous research shows that interleaving rather than blocking practice of different skills (e.g. abcbcacab instead of aaabbbccc) usually improves subsequent test performance. Yet interleaving, but not blocking, ensures that practice of any particular skill is distributed, or spaced, because any two opportunities to practice the same task are not consecutive. Hence, because spaced practice typically improves test performance, the previously observed test benefits of interleaving may be due to… 
View via Publisher
uweb.cas.usf.edu
208 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
8
Background Citations
89
Methods Citations
13
Results Citations
18

Figures from this paper

208 Citations

Interleaved Practice Improves Mathematics Learning.

TLDR
In the experiment reported here, 126 seventh-grade students received the same practice problems over a 3-month period, but the problems were arranged so that skills were learned by interleaved practice or by the usual blocked approach.

The Scarcity of Interleaved Practice in Mathematics Textbooks

A typical mathematics assignment consists of a block of problems devoted to the same topic, yet several classroom-based randomized controlled trials have found that students obtain higher test scores…

Unanswered Questions about Spaced Interleaved Mathematics Practice

Interleaved practice enhances memory and problem-solving ability in undergraduate physics

TLDR
In a domain that entails considerable amounts of problem-solving, replacing conventionally arranged homework with interleaved homework can (despite perceptions to the contrary) foster longer lasting and more generalizable learning.

A randomized controlled trial of interleaved mathematics practice.

We report the results of a preregistered, cluster randomized controlled trial of a mathematics learning intervention known as interleaved practice. Whereas most mathematics assignments consist of a…

Why does interleaving improve math learning? The contributions of discriminative contrast and distributed practice

TLDR
Performance on key measures was better for remote-interleaved groups compared to remote-blocked groups, a finding that supports the distributed-practice hypothesis and the discriminative-contrast hypothesis.

Spacing and Interleaving Effects Require Distinct Theoretical Bases: a Systematic Review Testing the Cognitive Load and Discriminative-Contrast Hypotheses

Spaced and interleaved practices have been identified as effective learning strategies which sometimes are conflated as a single strategy and at other times treated as distinct. Learning sessions in…

The role of working memory in blocked and interleaved grammar practice: Proceduralization of L2 syntax

Prior research showed that interleaved practice (studying multiple skills at once) is more effective than blocked practice (studying only one skill at a time). This study aims to replicate the…

Interleaved Learning in Elementary School Mathematics: Effects on the Flexible and Adaptive Use of Subtraction Strategies

TLDR
According to the attentional bias framework, interleaved practice seems to be a promising approach for teaching subtraction strategies to enhance the students’ flexibility and adaptivity.

Mixing Grammar Exercises Facilitates Long‐Term Retention: Effects of Blocking, Interleaving, and Increasing Practice

TLDR
Although interleaving led to the highest number of incorrect responses during training, it was more effective than blocking in the 1-week delayed posttest, indicating that the advantage of interleaves extends to L2 grammar learning.
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 29 REFERENCES

The effects of spacing and mixing practice problems

Sets of mathematics problems are generally arranged in 1 of 2 ways. With blocked practice, all problems are drawn from the preceding lesson. With mixed review, students encounter a mixture of…

The shuffling of mathematics problems improves learning

TLDR
The results of both experiments favored the shuffled format over the standard format, and performance was vastly superior after mixed practice.

The effects of overlearning and distributed practise on the retention of mathematics knowledge

In two experiments, 216 college students learned to solve one kind of mathematics problem before completing one of various practise schedules. In Experiment 1, students either massed 10 problems in a…

Distributed and massed practice: from laboratory to classroom

The benefit to memory of spacing presentations of material is well established but lacks an adequate explanation and is rarely applied in education. This paper presents three experiments that…

Examining the efficiency of schedules of distributed retrieval practice

TLDR
Results suggest that dropout can be a more efficient learning schedule for students than can conventional schedules of practice, and it was particularly effective for learning initially incorrect items.

Contextual Interference Effect on Acquisition and Retention of Pistol-Shooting Skills

TLDR
Results based on the data of Stage III, the most complex skill among the three stages, showed a pattern consistent with previous findings that practicing in the serial schedule depressed performance during initial training but maintained the performance better at retention, relative to the blocked practice.

Contextual interference effects with skilled baseball players.

TLDR
On both the random and blocked transfer tests, however, the random group performed with reliably higher scores than the blocked group, who performed better than the control group.

Spacing effects in learning: A temporal ridgeline of optimal retention learning:

eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. To achieve enduring retention, people…

Effects of Massed and Distributed Practice on the Learning and Retention of Second-Language Vocabulary

AbstractHigh school students enrolled in a French course learned vocabulary words under conditions of either massed or distributed practice as part of their regular class activities. Distributed…

Influence of abilities on performance during practice: Effects of massed and distributed practice.

Prior research indicates that the influence of abilities on performance may change as a function of practice. The present research examined how learning styles influence the relationship between…