6 HARRY H. WYLIE 



which the response remains constant while the stimulus, 

 is varied under proper control. Evidently such a situa- 

 tion is in mind when the problem of transfer is spoken of 

 as the problem of general training, of generalized response, 

 of generalized habit. Is there such a thing as generalized 

 response? Will a response which has been learned for one 

 stimulus or situation be found to carry over in any degree 

 for a stimulus or situation which is different in a definite 

 way from the first stimulus or situation? If so, under what 

 conditions does such a transfer take place? The experi- 

 ments reported in this paper were designed to answer 

 partially these questions. How successfully they have 

 done so will appear in the issue. They represent an attempt 

 to secure both the greatest simplicity possible and an accur- 

 ate definition of the relation of the two problems. Both 

 have the same motor response, both present the same sen- 

 sory situation except in one definite particular and both pre- 

 sumably have a minimum of central factors. Before pre- 

 senting the writer's experiments, however, let us notice a, 

 few theoretical considerations and some further experi- 

 ments that bear upon the question in the form in which 

 this paper expects to deal with it. 



Theoretically it is possible for a " generalized response " 

 to occur under two widely different conditions: (1) under 

 circumstances in which discrimination of the stimuli is 

 not possible for the organism called upon to make the 

 response, or if possible, has not yet been learned; (2) under 

 circumstances where discrimination of the stimuli is pos- 

 sible and is known to be made by the organism. Thus 

 under number one would fall such cases as those where 

 an animal makes the same response to all colors owing to 

 an apparent inability to discriminate differences in colors, 

 making the response wholly on the basis of brightness. 

 Also the case of the child calling all men " papa " might 

 be mentioned. These are to be looked upon not as cases 

 of " transfer of response " or " generalized response " be- 

 tween previously discriminated particulars, but as cases 

 merely of the absence of discriminated particulars. They 

 represent a primitive and unspecialized stage, not an ad- 

 vanced state. Under number two would fall what psy~ 



