Author: Carl Bereiter

Publisher:

Published: 1963

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

The studies summarized in this report investigate transfer from a variety of kinds of training to performance on a variety of problem-solving tasks. They cover a wide range from studies in which the training is in a well-established content area and the transfer task is radically different from, perphaps even somewhat incompatible with the tasks performed during training, to ones in which the training consists essentially of practice on parallel forms of the transfer tasks. The results of this experiment were negative for any claimed transfer effects of curricular or specific training on problem-solving ability. Considering the small and heterogeneous sample of subjects, however, it may be worth searching the results for some more direct indication of whether or not transfer effects may be obtainable. The differences between experimental groups, though slight, are almost all in a direction suggestive of positive transfer. Students who had studied logic were a little better on Attain That Concept; students who had studied game theory were better on linear programming problems; students who had studied hypothesis formation showed some advantage on it. The effects are certainly not ones to get excited about, but they should at least not stand in the way of anyone setting out to teach these abilities. (Author).