Suppose you want to improve your golf game—say, driving and putting. If you’re like most people, you would practice all of your driving and then all of your putting (or vice versa) before calling it a day. This is called blocked practice, and it’s widely adopted throughout the world. However, as Dr. Doug Rohrer (University of South Florida) discusses in this video, it is far better for long-term learning to mix-up, or “interleave,” the skills you are trying to master, whether they are sports-related or academic. Watch to find out more.

by GoCognitive
An interview of Dr. Robert Bjork about the seductive nature of blocked practice and why it might not be the best way for you to learn.
About the Author

Doug Rohrer (Ph.D., University of California, San Diego) is a Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida. He is a fellow of the Psychonomic Society and the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and is currently serving on the editorial board of the journal, Educational Psychology Review. Dr. Rohrer’s research examines and assesses the effectiveness of various learning strategies—particularly those used in mathematics learning and problem solving—with the goal of identifying pedagogical techniques that improve students’ long-term retention of information learned in school.

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In 2015, Cameron Broumand, an entrepreneur and father of three living in Los Angeles, stumbled upon a media article on the science of learning. After reading the piece, he realized that the valuable research findings in cognitive psychology and the learning sciences were almost entirely unknown to the public and, more surprisingly, to teachers. How could this be?! Broumand decided to find out, so he called Dr. Robert Bjork, a distinguished research professor at UCLA and one of the world’s leading experts in human learning and memory. After an insightful conversation with Dr. Bjork about the disconnect between research and practice, Broumand recognized an opportunity to improve our educational system. Shortly thereafter, he—along with Clement Mok, an award-winning designer and digital pioneer—founded the company, Lasting Learning. The goal of the company? To provide information to the public about how the science of learning can help transform and improve the way people teach and learn. Broumand asked learning scientists, Dr. Nick Soderstrom and Saskia Giebl, M.Sc. (both of whom were in Bjork’s lab at the time), to join the team. They happily agreed and, with the help of Carri O’Neill, have been giving talks, workshops, and webinars around the country ever since. The UCLA-Lasting Learning team has had the privilege to talk with thousands of teachers, coaches, parents, students, and athletes about how they can leverage the science of learning to enhance their educational practices. We look forward to talking with many more!