Transfer Flashcards

Transfer

• Thorndike and identical elements theory 

  • Created the idea of transfer 

  • The degree of transfer depends on number of similar/identical elements across two events 

• Principles of identical elements theory 

  • Similarity 

    • More identical elements between original and application = stronger transfer 

  • Specificity

    • Transfer is specific to tasks with overlapping characteristics 

  • Context - dependency 

    • Learning environment impacts application matching conditions to improve transfer

• Judd Dart - Throwing experiment 

  • Findings 

    • Group 2 performed significantly better 

    • Conceptual learning enhances transfer 

    • Skill (independently) is not enough 

• Types of transfer 

  • Vertical vs lateral 

    • Knowledge directly or more indirectly influencing 

  • Specific vs nonspecific 

    • How clear similarity between stimuli are

  • Near vs far 

    • How similar initial learning conditions are to transfer learning condition 

  • Literal vs figural 

    • How direct or abstract things are: direct application vs analogy 

  • Low vs high road 

    • Mindful vs. automatic transfer 

• Factors that influence transfer

  • Physical/social context 

  • Specificity-generality 

  • Knowledge domain 

  • Nature of performance change 

  • Format of testing

  • Memory demands of task  

  • Other factors 

• Context

• Practice

What can we do

• Prior experience 

• Learning techniques/ presentation 

  • Retrieval

• Metacognition 

Way to improve transfer 

• Connecting old and new material 

• Active recall

• Creating examples of knowledge applied to different contexts

• Reflection on learning

• Teaching material to others