ON FORMAL TRAINING. 



281 



improvement, but rather to discover what are the factors and conditions 

 that mediate or promote it. 



The current view can be summed up as follows : Transfer of im- 

 provement occurs only when there are common usable elements, shared 

 both by the activity used for the training and also by the activity in 

 which the results of that training reappear. The more the influenced and 

 the influencing acti^'ities resemble one another, the greater the influence 

 is likely to be. Practice in subtraction will improve accuracy in division, 

 because the latter involves the former, but it may have little or no effect 

 on accuracy in multiplication. The study of Latin will aid the study 

 of French, because many French words are derived from Latin roots, and 

 because many of the methods of work used in learning Latin — e.g. the use 

 of a dictionary — will also be required in learning French. 



The ' common elements ' may be elements of (i) material, (ii) method, 

 (iii) ideal ; they are most ' usable ' when they are conscious. 



In the laboratory experiments, it would seem that these common 

 usable elements consist in a partial identity of material rather than of 

 mental function. The fact that items of information, acquired during 

 the training, can be usefully applied again in the subsequent tests is quite 

 likely to produce an improvement in those tests as a result of the preceding 

 training. On the other hand, the fact that the functions employed in 

 both training and test are popularly called by the same name — " imagina- 

 tion,' ' observation,' ' memory,' or the like — is no guarantee that general 

 improvement will be secured. 



In the more concrete experiments dealing with school studies, it seems 

 clear that the common usable elements may arise not only from partial 

 identity of material, but also from a partial identity of method or 

 procedure, and sometimes from a partial identity of ideal and aim. 

 Hence it appears probable that in the schoolroom the most important 

 agencies in transfer are such things as generalised attitudes and interests, 

 generalised modes of attacking mental problems, generalised schemes of 

 thinking, useful moral habits and serviceable maxims of logic. 



These conclusions have been succinctly expressed by Prof. Godfrey 

 Thomson and Professor Nunn : ' Transfer of training appears, to put it 

 cautiously, to be much less certain and of much narrower spread than 

 once was believed. Subjects of instruction will not therefore be included 

 in the curriculum lightheartedly on the formal " discipline of the mind " 

 argument. Other things being reasonably equal, useful subjects will have 

 the preference.'* 'We conclude that the training produced by an 

 occupation or a study consists primarily in a facility in applying certain 

 ideas and methods to situations of a certain kind, and in a strong tendency 

 to bring the same ideas and methods to bear upon any situations akin to 

 these.' ^ 



The influence of conscious recognition has been made amply clear by 

 recent experimental work. Here lies a principle which is of special 

 interest to the teacher. A common element is more likely to be usable 

 if the learner becomes clearly conscious of its nature and of its general 

 applicability : active or deliberate transfer is far more effective and 



♦ Thomson, Instinct, Intelligence and Character (1924), pp. 144-5. 



^ Nunn, Education : its Data and First Principles (1920), pp. 210-21 1. 



