{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/interleave-only-where-choosing-matters",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9011",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Interleave only where choosing matters",
  "summary": "Mixing is a design choice, not a ritual.",
  "kind": "heuristic",
  "body": "Ask whether the real task requires selecting among similar methods or categories. If yes, mix those cases so the learner must choose. If the material is still being introduced or categories are not meaningfully confusable, blocked work may be clearer. Reassess from performance rather than ideology.",
  "limits": [
    "Some materials in the meta-analysis showed little benefit or an advantage for blocking. Treat interleaving as conditional."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-skill-acquisition-career-dominant-focus"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-B82676FFC4E6D020"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "A meta-analysis of interleaving found a moderate overall benefit (g = 0.42) but strong moderation by material type and category similarity, including conditions where blocking performed better.",
      "source_id": "RS-B82676FFC4E6D020",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "Interleaving should be selected for a discrimination problem rather than used as a universal mixing rule.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "When a study plan mixes topics simply because interleaving is supposed to be superior."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Some materials in the meta-analysis showed little benefit or an advantage for blocking. Treat interleaving as conditional."
  ],
  "example": "Mixing several similar chart-selection problems can train choice; alternating an unrelated language drill, coding task and accounting chapter may add switching without a useful discrimination problem.",
  "check": "The reason for interleaving names a target decision that mixed practice is supposed to improve.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-B82676FFC4E6D020",
      "title": "Similarity matters: A meta-analysis of interleaved learning and its moderators",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31556629/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-EA04F47374E04549",
      "title": "Learn new skills, turn them into career evidence, and protect the main development edge",
      "url": "/collections/learn-new-skills-turn-them-into-career-evidence-and-protect-the-main-development-edge"
    }
  ]
}