In their seminal study, Kornell and Bjork presented learners with artwork in blocked or interleaved formats, in a similar way to that suggested in Figure 1, above. However, when Kornell and Bjork ( 2008) put this to the test, the findings ran counter to this assumption. The review revealed that the literature is dominated by laboratory studies of university undergraduates, and the need for future school-based research using authentic classroom tasks is outlined.Įxample of interleaved versus blocked sequencesĮarly research in cognitive psychology assumed that viewing examples together in blocks would be beneficial to the process of forming new categories, while spacing them out over time-with unrelated examples in-between-would be harmful (Elio and Anderson, 1981). Interleaving was found to be of greatest use when differences between items are subtle, and the benefit extended to both art- and science-based items, with implication for practitioner decisions over how and when to apply the technique. Memory (as tested by presenting studied items from a learned category) showed an interleaving benefit with effect sizes (Hedges’ g) of up to 0.65, and transfer (as tested by presenting novel items from a learned category) a benefit with effect sizes of up to 0.66.
A total of 26 studies met the inclusion criteria a subset of 17 studies (with 32 constituent datasets) formed the basis of a meta-analysis, and the remainder were analysed within a narrative review. This concept has important implications for how and when teachers present examples in the classroom. A systematic review was conducted into the effect of interleaving the order of examples of concepts in terms of both memory of items and transfer to new items.
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