The Intelligence Trap: Revolutionise your Thinking and Make Wiser Decisions

by David Robson

Consider a physics class revising for an exam. In the West, it’s common for teachers to present the principles and then to get students to repeat endless series of similar questions until they reach nearly 100 per cent accuracy. The Bjorks have shown that, in reality, learning is more effective if the student solves just enough problems to refresh their mind, before moving on to a new (perhaps related) subject, and only later should they return to the initial topic. Like the spacing effect, this process of switching between tasks – known as interleaving – can lead the student to feel confused and overburdened, compared to lessons in which they are allowed to focus solely on one subject. But when they are tested later, they have learnt much more.4