Researchers have examined inductive reasoning to identify different cognitive processes when participants deal with inductive problems. This article presents a prescriptive theory of inductive reasoning that identifies cognitive processing using a procedural strategy for making comparisons. It is hypothesized that training in the use of the procedural inductive reasoning strategy will improve cognitive functioning in terms of (a) increased fluid intelligence performance and (b) better academic learning of classroom subject matter. The review and meta-analysis summarizes the results of 74 training experiments with nearly 3,600 children. Both hypotheses are confirmed. Further, two moderating effects were observed: Training effects on intelligence test performance increased over time, and positive problem-solving transfer to academic learning is greater than transfer to intelligence test performance. The results cannot be explained by placebo or test-coaching effects. It is concluded that the proposed strategy is theoretically and educationally promising and that children of a broad age range and intellectual capacity benefit with such training.

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Advice and feedback pertaining to analogical reasoning were manipulated to produce varying practice conditions for college-age Ss. Following training, Ss were administered a transfer task that was used to identify the transfer of a general or a specific procedural strategy for solving verbal analogies. Both a general transfer effect for verbal analogy solution and a procedural transfer effect for cause-effect relationships were obtained. These transfer effects were observed for both immediate and delayed transfer. Results are discussed within the theoretical context of schema theory (Royer, 1979(Royer, , 1986) and Steinberg's (1985a) componential subtheory of intelligence. Data provide support for a schema-based interpretation of training and transfer within a subset and class of intellectual skills identified as inductive reasoning.

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Withh~ the context of classroom learning, strategic transfer can be viewed as a tool for academic problem solving. Strategic transfer is defined as the spontaneous access and retrieval (remembering) of previously learned formal procedures for the successful solution of a problem. The transfer-appropriate processing encoding model (Morris, Bransford, and Franks, 1977), and the transfer-appropriate procedures retrieval model (Roediger, Weldon, and Challis, 1989) are reviewed. An integration of the two models is proposed through the development of a training-for-transfer paradigm (Phye, 1990). By integrating encoding and retrieval processing in a single transfer paradigm the issue of accessing prior knowledge (Bransford, 1990) that is also referred to as the inert knowledge problem (Whitehead, 1929) can directly be addressed.