Transfer Between Difficult and Easy Tasks

The existing literature on unequal transfer between difficult and easy tasks shows that it is impossible to predict the direction of optimum transfer on the basis of the relative difficulty of the two tasks. The first experiment explores an absolute difficulty hypothesis to the effect that transfer might be greater from a point of optimum difficulty, whether to an easier or to a more difficult task; changes in difficulty were achieved by controlled variation of the complication of pursuit tracking courses. However, after a week's practice on the twelve task conditions, it appeared that transfer was consistently most effective in the difficult–easy direction. In a second experiment, subjects were transferred between tasks with easy and difficult course amplitudes, at both easy and difficult levels of complication. In this case, the easy‐difficult order of practice was better with the simpler courses, while the complex courses favoured difficult‐to‐easy transfer. It is concluded that difficulty is not a useful category for the prediction of transfer efficiency, and that the solution lies in examining the skills involved. Explanations are outlined in terms of inclusion and error size constancy, although it is probable that many other factors play a part

Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Negative transfer · Point (geometry) · Task (project management) · Tracking (education) · Transfer (computing) · Transfer of learning · Variation (astronomy) · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Computer Science · Mathematics · Optimal Experimental Design Methods · Psychology

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