Transfer of Training: An Interpretive Review

Abstract : Information processing and memorial processes that have been identified by contemporary research as important factors in human learning and cognitive activity are shown to provide a basis for explaining and predicting transfer of training effects. Four major factors are discussed in separate sections: the relationship between retrieval cues and encoded information, study-phase retrieval, organizational strategies, and performance automatization. A fifth section briefly discusses the relevance of information processing factors to proactive interference phenomena. These information processing factors are seen to exert their effect in both the laboratory and in applied settings, providing a potential link between basic and applied research on this topic. The similarities and differences in transfer with verbal as opposed to motoric responses are also considered in light of these information processing concepts.