Some Fungi Are Not Edible More Than Once: The Impact of Motivation to Avoid Confusion on Learners' Study Sequence Choices

Learners usually prefer blocked sequences (AAABBBCCC) to interleaved sequences (ABCABCABC), even though interleaved sequences support learners in detecting predictive differences between confusable categories. The present experiment investigates the impact of the intrinsic value of avoiding confusion on learners' study sequence choices and their ability to distinguish by manipulating the respective labels of two naturalistic superordinate mushroom categories between subjects (n = 144), edible mushrooms and their looking alike poisonous doubles (high intrinsic value) versus mushrooms growing on acid and alkaline to neutral soil (low intrinsic value). When motivated to avoid confusion, learners interleaved to a higher extent and distinguished the mushroom doubles more reliably-mediated by interleaved study sequence choices. Results suggest that learners spontaneously make adaptive study sequence choices when it is important to avoid confusion. For engaging learners in spontaneous interleaving, we recommend highlighting the importance of distinguishing categories as learning objective.