1.8C Problem 6 Summary

1.8C Problem 6

Transfer
 Transfer- when something you learn in one situ affects how you
learn or perform, in another situ
o Regular part of everyday life
o Includes generalisation (little albert experiment)
o Essential component of human functioning
 Without, would spend all time in trial-and-error learning
o Should be top priority in instructional settings
 ability to transfer info learned in school to out-of-school lives
 School learning often yields inert knowledge-
knowledge that students never use outside classroom

Types of transfer
o Declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, interplay between the
two
 Can go in either direction: declarative -> procedural; procedural -
> declarative
o Positive VS Negative Transfer
Positive transfer- when learning in one situation facilitates learning
or performance in another situation
Eg. reading practice helps spelling
 Includes meaningful learning and elaboration- they inc previous
info to understand new material
 More common than negative
Negative transfer- when something learned in one situation hinders
a person’s ability to learn or perform in a second situation
Eg. learn a second language, apply characteristics of mother tongue
 Common in decimal questions with maths, applying rules for
whole numbers to decimals
 Typically, only problematic in early stages of learning new
domain
o Vertical VS Lateral Transfer
Vertical transfer- learner acquires new knowledge or skills by
building on more basic info and procedures
Eg. learn how to write a sentence, to then learn how to write a
paragraph
Lateral transfer- when knowledge of first topic is helpful, but not
essential to learning the second topic
Eg. learn Latin, then Spanish, some of the words are similar
o Near VS Far Transfer
Near transfer- situations or problems that are similar in superficial
characteristics and underlying relationships
 Similar surface characteristics and similar underlying structures
 More common than far
 Better prospects than far transfer
 Strong local knowledge= little far transfer

, Far transfer- two situations similar in one or more underlying
relationships but different in their surface features
 Appear different but have similar underlying concepts
o Specific VS General Transfer
Specific transfer- original learning task and transfer task overlap in
some way
Eg. if learn German, know more English words as overlap, than if
learnt Chinese
 Includes near and far transfer
 If you learn something in one specific context, doesn’t
necessarily transfer to another one
 More common than general
General transfer- original task and transfer task are different in
content and structure
Eg. physics equations helps learn Latin

Mechanism of Transfer
 Abstraction
o Trying to find possible underlying connections
 Transfer of affordances
o Learners acquire action schema responsive to affordances
(action opportunities) of the learning situation
o If transfer situ presents similar affordances and they’re
recognised, person may apply same or similar schema
 High road and load road transfer
o Low road transfer- triggering of well-practiced routines by
stimulus conditions similar to those in learning context
o High road transfer- deliberate effortful abstraction and a
search for connections
 Depends on mindful abstraction from context of learning
or application
Theories of Transfer
o Formal discipline (Historical perspective)
 Learn and study difficult topics, memorising things to
improve general learning capabilities
 Formal discipline- exercise your mind to learn more
quickly and deal with new situations more effectively
 Emphasis on importance and likelihood of general transfer
 Mind-is-like muscle
 General mental exercise might have long-ranging transfer
effects: Nun-study showed that nuns practicing repeated
similar puzzles had axons and dendrites typical of people
much younger than them
o Adults, daily based practice with computer-based
memory enhances memory in other, dissimilar situations
 Extreme general transfer probably doesn’t occur
o Thorndike’s Identical Elements (Early Behaviourist Theory)
 Thorndike- transfer occurs only to extent that original and
transfer tasks have identical elements- two tasks