64 HARRY H. WYLIE 



C. Summary of Conclusions — The results of the experi- 

 ments reported in this paper go to support the general 

 contention that " the fact of transfer can not be doubted," 

 that is, of positive or advantageous transfer. It has been 

 found that in every case learning a response to one situa- 

 tion, having a given element or stimulus as the dominant 

 or controlling factor, is a help in learning the same response 

 to the same situation but having a different element or 

 stimulus, not present before, as the dominant or controlling 

 factor; that even in some situations the learning process 

 for one sort of dominant stimulus is actually reduced in 

 length so much by first introducing another dominant 

 stimulus, that the time and effort for both is less than for 

 the one alone. Such was actually the case in learning the 

 negative response to the sound. 



Looking at the results from the point of view of " gen- 

 eralized response " or " generalized habit " we can say 

 that responses are not always particular, but may become 

 truly general; that is, the same response may serve for 

 situations whose dominant stimuli are as different as can 

 be found, provided the other features of the situation are 

 the same and remain constant. This is really the reverse 

 of the cases usually spoken of under the term " generalized 

 habit." In such cases the dominant features are supposed 

 to remain the same while the minor features vary from one 

 case to another. So " generalized habit " can not always 

 be said to depend upon similarity of dominant features in 

 the situations responded to, or upon lack of discrimination 

 of such dominant features. We can secure " generalized 

 responses " where the dominant features of the situation 

 are actually different for the organisms making the re- 

 sponses, provided we can take difference of sense channel 

 as the basis for discrimination of stimuli. In such cases 

 there would be difference of neural pathways, at least in 

 the sensory portion of such pathways. The " identical 

 elements " in such pathways would be at least partly in 

 the association and motor portions. Complete identity 

 can not be said to be present. 



According to the results given, one, and the only one, 

 of the conditions of the degree of advantageous or positive 

 transfer clearly shown is the simultaneous presentation 



