curio

psychology

Repeating a task made practice faster, but mixing it up helped later

In an experiment, students knocked down small barriers with their hands in set orders. Some repeated one order before learning the next. Others mixed up the orders during practice.

The repeating group was faster at first. But when everyone tried new orders, the mixed-practice group was faster.

For this movement task, being quick at familiar steps did not show who would handle new ones better.

Source: gwern.net

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