Does interference disqualify incremental reading?
(anonymous, Jan 20, 2007, 05:06:45) Question: I read a paper about interference in learning. When students learn two things one after another, they perform worse than if they focus on one thing. To my mind, that should disqualify incremental reading, shouldn’t it? Answer: No. It is true that interference can ruin learning. If you read about a subject without fully understanding it and follow it with another subject that is confusingly similar in nature, you will indeed perform worse in tests. However, this effect is much less pronounced if the first subject is studied with solid comprehension. Incremental reading, make is possible to read only as much as you understand. Then it encourages long-term retention by producing cloze deletions. Finally, it periodically rediscovers weaknesses in the learning process and fills the gap. When well executed, incremental reading produces an opposite effect. It minimizes interference by forcing you to resolve contradiction in your material. It ruthl
