ON FORMAL TRAINING. 309 



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(2) Where an attitude of liking or disliking, welcoming or fearing, 

 the new task, set up strongly in the one type of learning has been 

 transferred to the other. 



(3) Where a sentiment {i.e. a relatively permanent organisation of 

 tendencies to emotion) has been acquired towards the work, or towards 

 some person connected with the work, and is then transferred to the 

 other type of learning. 



It becomes clear that if this analysis be approximately correct, any 

 two skills which superficially resemble each other {e.g. tennis and bad- 

 minton, ski-ing and figure-skating), may contain {a) similar, even identical, 

 elements which can be transferred bodily, and (b) completely antagonistic 

 elements. From this it follows that habits learnt in the one type of skill 

 may transfer ' positively ' or ' negatively.' For example, while a figure- 

 skater learns always to lean towards the direction of his turns, a ski-runner 

 may have to lean either towards or away from the direction. An expert 

 skater would find this very difficult to unlearn, while a novice at both 

 sports would find less difficulty. Similarly, the oral learning of two foreign 

 languages in the same year may cause interference. 



Very little experimental work appears to have been done upon transfer 

 as it relates to complex skills, i.e. ' integrations of well-adapted perform- 

 ances,' or even to the simplest cases of dexterity. But the results of 

 experimental work carried out during the last three years in the Manchester 

 laboratory ^ seem to fit very well into this suggested view of transfer in 

 general. In the experiments, there is an almost spectacular lack of 

 transfer between habits which appeared to be very similar indeed. In 

 some cases there is negative transfer owing to the interference of habits. 

 Where transfer occurs it seems to be in terms of a general mental attitude. 



If these results are confirmed by others, it would seem that we can 

 never, on the basis of superficial inspection, believe that, because two 

 skills look similar, acquisition of proficiency in one will transfer to the 

 other. Where it does transfer, it may be as a result of common habits 

 (though in such cases the risk of negative transfer is great), or of common 

 material. Where positive transfer takes place it is more likely to occur 

 through the agency of emotional attitudes, sentiments and ideals. The 

 attitude of analysing movements, of demanding to know the reasons for 

 them, the sentiments and ideals formed in connection with a particular 

 teacher, or his method of regarding a certain skill, are probably the most 

 powerful vehicles of transfer. 



« By Dr. C. E. Beeby, Mrs. L. Henshaw, Mr. J. N. Langdon and Miss P. Holman. 



