Studies of learning to learn. I. Transfer as a function of method of practice and class of verbal materials

Training, Transfer, and the Development of Complex Behavior

“…LTL is of primary importance here and the discussion of warm-up will not be dis cussed systematically. The effects of warm-up are of short duration [Postman and Schwartz, 1964] and are not potent in most learn ing tasks [Lazar, 1967]. Thus, the primary contrasts made in the present paper refer to the distinction between LTL and specific transfer factors.…”

“…These components may be divided into two categories, nonspecific (or nonassociative) factors and specific (or associative) factors [e.g., Kausler, 1966;Postman and Schwartz, 1964;Underwood, 1966]. Nonspecific sources of transfer contribute a source of positive transfer and may be defined as sources of transfer which are independent of the particular asso ciations or discriminations required on the task in question [Under wood, 1966].…”

Some Effects of Amount of Verbal Pretraining and Availability of Verbal Labels upon Performance in a Discriminative Motor Task

“…Yet more than one type of learning to learn must be assumed to occur in the complex situation created by the present design and others like it. To the extent that discriminarion strategies necessary for handling Task 2 items are similar to, or compatible with, those learned during Task 1, criterion performance will be facilitated by virtue of Task 1 practice (Kurtz, 1955;Postman & Schwartz, 1964). Indeed, in the verbal transfer situation, the similarity of first-and second-task structures has been shown (Postman & Schwartz, 1964) to have reliable proactive consequences.…”

Measuring episodic memory: A novel approach with an indefinite number of alternative forms

“…The final problem in repeatedly using a memory test to monitor changes in performance is learning‐to‐learn. Performance on many memory tasks improves with practice even when different items are being learned (Postman & Schwartz, 1964). Any such performance changes will have to be taken into consideration in interpreting a pattern of changes with repeated administrations of a memory test.…”