Chapter 8, page 182
- Anderson et al. did a study of transfer in which they used three different word processing
programs. The study was done years ago when word processors were nothing like what you are all using
today. The programs were simple word processors that had lots of commands and required editing on just
one line at a time. Anderson et al. found that only when two word processing programs had exactly the
same feature (e.g., you delete a word in the same way) were people able to transfer their knowledge, and
even then, they were only able to transfer those features that were exactly the same. When features were
dissimilar, students who learned one word processor showed no advantage at losing the dissimilar feature
on the second word processor, compared to students who had never used the first word processor at all. - When students learn a principle of mathematics while learning to solve a physics problem, they
show little ability to use that new principle when they solve a mathematics problem. - Students who learn a cognitive strategy in one class (e.g., they learn to self-explain in physics) do
not use that same strategy in another class in which it would be useful (e.g., they don’t use self-explanation
to understand their history textbook). - After learning to self-explain a history textbook in an experiment, students do not use the self-
explanation strategy when the experimenters are no longer in the classroom to remind them to use the
strategy. - A number of studies have examined whether students can transfer declarative knowledge to the
solution of riddles. In a typical study, experimenters present participants with sentences such as these:
Sentence 1: If you throw a ball into the air, it comes back down.
Sentence 2: A deaf parrot will not learn to mimic sounds.
Typically, the participants are asked to do tasks such as rate how understandable each sentence is.
Then, a short time later, the participants are asked to solve problems such as the following:
Problem 1: Can you make a tennis ball go a short distance, come to a dead stop, then reverse itself, and go
in the opposite direction? Note: Bouncing the ball is not permitted, nor can you hit it with
anything, nor tie anything to it.
Problem 2: “This myna bird,” said the pet shop salesman, “will repeat anything it hears.” A week later the
lady who bought the bird was back in the shop to complain that she had talked to the bird, but
he had not yet said anything. Nevertheless, the salesman told the truth. Explain.
When solving these problems, participants are not told that the sentences they just read are relevant to
solving the problems.
The first sentence is relevant to solving Problem 1. You can make the tennis ball do this by throwing it
upward. The second sentence is relevant to solving Problem 2. The myna bird did not repeat what the
woman said because the bird was deaf. Since it hears nothing, it repeats nothing.
Researchers have found that unless people are explicitly told that the sentences are relevant to solving the
problems, people who read the sentences are no better at solving the problems than people who do not read
the sentences at all. People do not transfer the information in the sentences to the solution of problems.
- In another line of research, participants in studies read problems like the following.