Blocked studying occurs when an entire time slot is devoted to one concept/ group of information. Blocked studying allows for quicker immediate learning with less long term retention. 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Interleaving refers to studying different concepts in a single period of time. Although it may seem more difficult at the time of studying, interleaving information during study time improves long term retention of the materials. 

Example: When studying for a cumulative final, it may seem easy to study a single chapter each day leading up to the exam. However, for long term retention, you should study parts of multiple chapter each day, thus interleaving the topics.

Interleaving Study Materials

How students/people use educational material to learn, often with the goal of doing well on an exam or quiz.

Study habits 

Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making Things Hard on Yourself, But in a Good Way:
Creating Desirable Difficulties to Enhance Learning. Psychology and the Real World, 56-
64.

Making Things Hard on Yourself, But in a Good Way: Creating Desirable Difficulties to Enhance Learning

Blocked Studying

In general, men and women have differing habits when studying.

Gender and study habits

A learning task that requires a considerable but desirable amount of effort, thereby improving long-term performance.

Examples:

- Interleaving Materials
- Spacing Studying
- Generation Effect
- Retrieval practice (testing)
- Varying Study Conditions

Desirable Difficulties

Pulling from the Latin roots "*pro*" (meaning forward, forth, in favor of) and "*crastinus*" (of tomorrow), procrastination is an irrational, but voluntary decision to delay an intended behavior or task.
- *Irrationality* is defined as "... choosing course of action[,] despite expecting that it will not maximize your utilities..."
- *Intended* is defined as something that one wants to interact with; the avoidance of random or irrelevant tasks would not be considered procrastination.

Procrastination

One research study published in 2018 looks at how students tend to struggle in STEM courses, especially students of underrepresented minorities (URM). This study focuses on decreasing the achievement gap between URM (Latino, African-American, and Native American students) and non-URM (white and Asian students) groups by implementing interventions that impart studying strategies, such as spacing and self-testing, to see if the students' course grades improve. The reason for this intervention is to teach students who do not know how to study on their own how to do it effectively for STEM courses. 

Study Methods of Students in STEM Courses 

Learning strategies are essentially different methods of studying or various types of study habits. Dunlosky et al. categorized each study habit into one of three utilities based on generalizability and effectiveness (if it really improves learning): high, moderate and low.

Learning Strategies

•	Wrenn Study Habits Inventory

•	The Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA)

•	Students Attitudes Inventory (SAI)

•	Learning and Study Strategy Inventory (LASSI)


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