Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Interleaving, as opposed to blocking, information improves learning of categories, such as artists' painting styles. The current study examined whether presentation schedules also impact memory for specific items. 179 participants studied paintings from 12 different artists on either a blocked or interleaved schedule. In Study 1 (N = 84), participants were then asked to either identify the artists of a series of paintings (style recognition task) or determine whether they had previously seen a specific painting (item recognition task). In Study 2 (N = 93), participants completed both tasks. Results showed that the interleaved schedule led to better learning of the painting styles, but did not impact item memory. However, when participants had to recognize the style and the painting for an artist on the interleaved schedule, they incorrectly thought that they had previously seen the painting. This finding illustrates the dynamic relationship between item memory and category learning.