Chapter 3: Transfer Of Learning

Question 1

• What is transfer of learning?
• What are the 7 factors affecting transfer of learning?
• Explain skill to skill transfer?
• Describe the idea of ‘Theory to practice’
• Describe visual-perceptual training.
• What are the 4 advantages of visual-perceptual training?
• Describe the idea of ‘Training to competition’
• How can negative transfer be reduced?

Answer 1

• Transfer of prior skill and knowledge to new activities.
  1. Similarity: greater similarity = greater transfer.
  2. Difference: greater difference = less transfer.
  3. Understanding: New skills are learnt easier if built upon skills and understanding already attained.
  4. Noticing similarities: Creates more opportunities for transfer.
  5. Tactics: can be transferred between sports.
  6. Learnt skills: More likely transfer will be.
  7. Preferred sides: skills should be learnt on the preferred side first.
• Where the skill developed in one sport has an influence on a skill in another. This can be proactive or retroactive transfer.
• Application of cognitive processes such as learning aspects of a skill, strategy or tactic, and applying to practical situations.
• Watching videos to improve perceptual performance by improving the ability to identify visual cues and applying to practical situations.
• Low impact, can happen at any time, player directed and enjoyable.
• Transfer learnt skills in training to competitions involving competitive conditions to be replicated in practice eg practising strategies against active oppositions.
• By ensuring the performer is aware of the specific differences in technique and with practice.

Question 2

• Describe the 7 types of transfer.
• When does positive transfer occur?
• What 7 things can a coach do to enhance the effect of transfer?
• What 2 aspects of invasion games can be positively transferred?
• Why are students taught how to kick, catch, throw and strike at a young age?

Answer 2

1. Positive: learned skills aid learning new skills.
2. Negative: When new skill involves a similar context but different movement pattern so hinders learning of a skill.
3. Zero: learning of one skill has no effect on another.
4. Direct: Skills taken from one sport to another.
5. Proactive: learned skills influence learning of new skills.
6. Retroactive: New skills influence skills already learned.
7. Bilateral: occurs from one limb to another.
   - If the individual understands the similarities between the skills, practice is similar to the game, the original skill is ingrained and the movement and cognitive elements of the two skills are similar.
8. Provide proper feedback during the associative phase of learning.
9. Ensure athletes understands the similarities between 2 skills.
10. Make practise similar to games.
11. Ensure original skill is well learned before progressing.
12. Explain the concept of transfer to the performer.
13. Develop skills in a closed situation first.
14. Make the movement and cognitive requirements of the skill similar.
    - General strategies of attack and defence.
    - To develop a fundamental movement base to develop sport-specific techniques. Eg a overarm throwing action can be transferred into a badminton smash, javelin throw, or a tennis/volleyball serve.

Question 3

• What is pattern recognition?
• What is stimulus generalisation?
• What is response generalisation?
• Discuss the categories of transfer of learning Jessica Ennis may experience as a heptathlete and, using the events in the photos above (200m, LJ, shot put and javelin), identify and explain three different potential effects of learning.

Answer 3

-Ability to recognise common elements between sports and transfer learnt elements to a new sporting situations.
-Transfer of learned skills to new skills generally rather than specific.
-Ability to vary a skill.
-The categories of transfer of learning Jessica may experience are:
1.Training to comp- training to imitate performance in competitive situations.
2.Theory to practice- transferring knowledge of skill to performing it.
3.Skill to skill- previous learnt skills impacts execution of new skill.
Three potential effects of learning:
1.Positive transfer: learnt skills enhances performance of new skill eg sprinting 200m enhances running in long jump.
2.Negative transfer: Learnt skills negatively affects performance of new skill eg javelin action negatively impacting shot put action.
3.Zero transfer: learnt skill has no influence on a new skill eg javelin will not influence 200m.