Education & Learning · The Science of Learning
A topic within The Science of Learning, itself one of 12 topics in that field and part of Education & Learning.
No prior grounding assumed.
Teaching for Transfer
David N. Perkins & Gavriel Salomon · 1988
Argues transfer of learning almost never happens by itself and must be deliberately designed for, either by drilling a skill to the point of…
Primary sources and full treatments.
The Influence of Improvement in One Mental Function upon the Efficiency of Other Functions
Edward L. Thorndike & Robert S. Woodworth · 1901
Reports experiments finding that training a mental function on one kind of material barely improves performance on superficially similar tasks,…
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David N. Perkins & Gavriel Salomon
Argues transfer of learning almost never happens by itself and must be deliberately designed for, either by drilling a skill to the point of automatic reflex or by teaching students to abstract a principle and bridge it to new contexts.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Edward L. Thorndike & Robert S. Woodworth
Reports experiments finding that training a mental function on one kind of material barely improves performance on superficially similar tasks, undermining the then-standard assumption that mental training transfers broadly.
15 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Susan M. Barnett & Stephen J. Ceci
Proposes a taxonomy of the dimensions along which transfer can be judged near or far, and argues a century of contradictory findings on whether transfer happens stems from studies quietly comparing different things under the same name.
26 pages