Interleaving is most useful when differences between items are subtle; blocking can be preferable when category members are diverse¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesis r? · q2
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The interleaving advantage is moderated by item and category similarity: interleaving helps when exemplars are similar and easily confused, while blocking may benefit diverse categories. → Jonathan Firth 2021

Evidence¶

Jonathan Firth 2021¶

Jonathan Firth, Ian Rivers and James Boyle. (2021). A systematic review of interleaving as a concept learning strategy. Review of Education. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3266

q2 · i? · quant-synthesis · r?

Narrative synthesis of studies varying within- and between-category similarity, including MacKendrick's (2015) systematic HW/LW/HB/LB manipulation, where interleaving benefited HB-HW and especially HW-LB categories. The review concludes interleaving is "of greatest use when differences between items are subtle".

"Carvalho and Goldstone (2014a, 2015b) presented results which suggest that if category members are all alike then interleaving is best, while if category members are more diverse then blocking may be beneficial."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Interleaving effects are stronger when material is more similar between categories, less similar within categories, and more complex — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Interleaving category examples improves inductive category learning for visual and mathematical materials, but not for expository texts or word categories — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Interleaving is especially useful for inductive, subtle pattern learning without a clear verbal rule, but can equal or exceed blocking in rule-based domains too — related
• Interleaving benefits transfer to novel items from a learned category, with effect sizes of up to 0.66 — related
• Interleaving benefits are small for mathematical tasks and absent or reversed for expository texts and words — related
• Interleaving during concept learning benefits memory of studied items, with effect sizes (Hedges' g) of up to 0.65 — related