Transfer of Prior Learning to Verbal Instruction 1

Abstract

Using a proactive model of transfer of learning, two hypotheses were tested about how specific, experimentally induced differences in prior instruction determine the results of subsequent verbal instruction. In an experiment, 352 children from inner city schools in Los Angeles were individually randomly assigned to six treatments and individually taught and tested. The results supported the two hypotheses about transfer, indicating that transfer depended upon the congruence between the students’ previous learning in the experiment and subsequent instruction.