Errors in transfer following learning with understanding: further studies with Katona's card-trick experiments.

Some factors in the programming of conceptual learning.

“…The finding that a Discovery method leads to greater transfer than does a Rule and Example method is quite consistent with the findings of Katona (1940) as well as other investigators (Haslerud & Meyers, 1958;Hilgard et al, 1954;Hilgard et al, 1953). Katona's work itself suggests that the individuals who "memorize" solutions to his problems were simply not learning the right things.…”

“…His investigations demonstrate the relative ineffectiveness of "memorizing" and of "verbal principle learning" in the solution of card-trick and match-stick pattern problems, as compared with what Katona refers to as "understanding." 313 A number of Katona's findings have been confirmed and amplified by other investigators (Hilgard, Edgren, & Irvine, 1954;Hilgard, Irvine, & Whipple, 1953). According to Katona, the learning of "senseless connections" may be contrasted in its effectiveness for the solution of new problems with the learning of "meaningful organization."…”

Recent research on human problem solving.

“…In studies with other complex problems, sex differences have been mentioned occasionally. Hilgard et al (1954) found high school boys superior to girls on Katona card problems. Saugstad (1952) used five complex problems to test his hypothesis that incidental memory should correlate negatively with ability to solve such difficult problems.…”

“…All experiments on methods of "understanding" (Gorman, 1957;Crannell, 1956;Fergus & Schwartz, 1957;Hilgard et al, 1953;Hilgard et al, 1954) used several transfer tasks, some called simple, others difficult. In some cases, but not always, it appeared that different training methods produced differences only on difficult transfer problems.…”

Chapter III: Learning

“…Hall (59) and Hilgard and others (65) conducted studies in which meaningful learning was investigated. What, for educators, are the implications of the fact that so few studies in learning deal with the meaning of the material to the learner?…”