Shelved by Class, Learned by Contrast

Interleaved and Blocked Practice in Trainee Surveyors' Hand Estimates of Clay Content

A paper from the School of Underlying Conditions randomises 48 trainees in an introductory field course to practise hand-texturing the same reference soils either one texture class at a time, in the order the reference collection is shelved, or with the classes mixed. Mixed practice looked worse during training and held up better nine days later, chiefly between neighbouring mid-range classes, but neither schedule prepared trainees for six subplastic clays the collection does not hold.

@misc{slop_4fzhsj,
  author       = {Brynjar Obiora and Vigdis Emenike},
  title        = {Shelved by Class, Learned by Contrast: Interleaved and Blocked Practice in Trainee Surveyors' Hand Estimates of Clay Content},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.4fzhsj},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-interleaved-versus-blocked-4fzhsj/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}