Transfer of Learning

The carry over of habits of thinking, feeling or working of knowledge or skills from one learning area to another is usually referred as the transfer of training. In other words, the influence that the learning of one skill has on the learning or performance of another transfer of training or learning. Will knowledge of English help a person learn German? Are skillful table-tennis players generally good court-tennis players? Can a child who does not know how to add learn to multiply? Such questions represent the problems of transfer of training.

Basically transfer can take 3 different forms: 

• Positive Transfer: Performance on one task may facilitate performance of second task which is called positive transfer.

• Negative Transfer: Performance on one task may inhabit or disrupt performance on a second task which is called negative transfer.

• Zero Transfer: There may be no effect of one task on another this called zero transfer.

Transfer of training take place in many areas:

• Transfer from knowledge to knowledge

• Knowledge to skill

• Knowledge to behavior

• Attitude to attitude

• Attitude to behavior.

• Bilateral Transfer: 

Bilateral Transfer:

The possibility of transfer of training from one hand to another hand. It has been studied with reference to simple motor skills. It has been found that if we learn a motor activity with the right hand it becomes easier on that account to learn that activity using the left hand. Practice with the right hand reduces the number of trails necessary for the left hind to acquire the skill. Such a transfer of training is called bilateral transfer or cross education.