Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Spontaneous transfer of learning is widely reported to be difficult to elicit.We hypothesized that one reason this finding is so widespread is that pretests proactively interfere with performance on transfer.To test this hypothesis, we examined transfer of learning across two numerical tasks (number line estimation and categorization) in which similar representational changes have been observed.Children who were given feedback on the number line estimation task learned to use a linear representation of numerical quantity instead of a logarithmic one, but simply providing children with practice on the categorization pretest led them to continue using a logarithmic representation on the same task, which they otherwise abandoned with surprising frequency.
Authors: John E. Opfer, Clarissa A. Thompson
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2587657441