Why do people overestimate the effectiveness of blocked learning?

Abstract

Interleaved learning has been shown to be better for delayed memory performance than blocked learning. Nevertheless, people judge blocked learning to be more effective. In the present work, we tested different explanations for this metacognitive bias. Across three experiments, participants studied sequences of object-color associations for a final color-reproduction test. In Experiment 1, colors of a sequence were selected from one color category (blocked-study condition) or distinct color categories (interleaved-study condition). Participants gave higher judgements of learning (JOLs) for objects studied in the blocked condition, although performance was better for objects in the interleaved condition. In Experiment 2, participants’ immediate memory performance after each sequence was additionally measured. JOLs were again higher for objects in the blocked condition, and they mimicked participants’ immediate memory performance suggesting a link between participants’ evaluations of the learning strategies and their immediate memory effects. In Experiment 3, the objects of one sequence were either grouped by category (blocked-study condition) or derived from distinct categories (interleaved-study condition). Neither JOLs, nor immediate performance was affected by this manipulation of blocked learning, speaking against the possibility that people prefer blocked learning because of habit only. We conclude that people overestimate the effectiveness of blocked learning due to the immediate memory boost caused by blocked learning and not due to their previously acquired habit to study in blocks. This study provides insights into how people evaluate the effectiveness of learning strategies and why these evaluations are not always accurate.

I remember it now, so I’ll remember it later: Working memory strength guides predictions for long-term memory performance

“…Finally, one recent study from our lab (Krasnoff & Overkott, 2022) also provided evidence for the role of working memory strength for JOLs. It is often observed that people prefer blocked than interleaved learning, and that they provide higher JOLs to the former than the later even though long-term learning is better for the interleaved learning condition.…”

“…One major advantage of the revised memory-strength theory is that it is parsimonious and makes strong predictions that are easy to test. Finding that JOLs are not related to memory strength in a situation in which memory strength varies would provide conclusive evidence against the memory-strength theory (see also Krasnoff & Overkott, 2022). In contrast, the cue-utilization theory is hard to falsify.…”

Smartphone-based study reminders can be a double-edged sword

“…Distributing study time over multiple sessions (i.e., distributed practice), for example, is a well-established learning strategy that is effective for many different types of material and is particularly fruitful for long-term retention [9][10][11] , but students -and especially younger ones-often fail to apply it 3 . Instead, they often improvise their study method and evaluate strategies based on how much they learned shortterm 12,13 . Our goal, therefore, is to investigate effective methods to help lower secondary school students integrate distributed practice into their self-study.…”