Spaced and interleaved practices have been identified as effective learning strategies which sometimes are conflated as a single strategy and at other times treated as distinct. Learning sessions in which studying information or practicing problems are spaced in time with rest-from-deliberate-learning periods between sessions generally result in better learning outcomes than massed practice without rest-from-deliberate-learning periods. Interleaved practice also consists of spaced sessions, but by interleaving topics rather than having rest-from-deliberate-learning periods. Interleaving is usually contrasted with blocking in which each learning topic is taught in a single block that provides an example of massed practice. The general finding that interleaved practice is more effective for learning than blocked practice is sometimes attributed to spacing. In the current paper, the presence of rest-from-deliberate-learning periods is used to distinguish between spaced and interleaved practice. We suggest that spaced practice is a cognitive load effect that can be explained by working memory resource depletion during cognitive effort with recovery during rest-from-deliberate-learning, while interleaved practice can be explained by the discriminative-contrast hypothesis positing that interleaving assists learners to discriminate between topic areas. A systematic review of the literature provides evidence for this suggestion.

间隔和交织的实践被认为是有效的学习策略，有时被混和为一个单独的策略，而在其他时候则被视为不同的策略。学习会议中，学习信息或实践问题的间隔时间与每节课之间的刻意学习时间间隔相比，通常会产生比没有刻意休息时间的集体练习更好的学习成果。交错式练习还包括间隔的会议，但通过交错主题而不是刻意的学习时间来休息。交织通常与分块进行对比，在分块中，每个学习主题都在一个块中进行讲授，以提供大量练习的示例。一般的发现是，交错练习比封闭练习对学习更有效，有时归因于间隔。在当前的论文中，刻意学习休息时间的存在是用来区分间隔练习和交错练习。我们建议，间隔练习是一种认知负荷效应，可以通过认知努力期间的工作记忆资源耗竭以及有意学习休息期间的恢复来解释，而交错式练习可以通过判别性对比假说来解释，该假设认为交织可以帮助学习者区分主题领域。对文献的系统回顾为这一建议提供了证据。我们建议，间隔练习是一种认知负荷效应，可以通过认知努力期间的工作记忆资源耗竭以及有意学习休息期间的恢复来解释，而交错式练习可以通过判别性对比假说来解释，该假设认为交织可以帮助学习者区分主题领域。对文献的系统回顾为这一建议提供了证据。我们建议，间隔练习是一种认知负荷效应，可以通过认知努力期间的工作记忆资源耗竭以及有意学习休息期间的恢复来解释，而交错式练习可以通过判别性对比假说来解释，该假设认为交织可以帮助学习者区分主题领域。对文献的系统回顾为这一建议提供了证据。