Skill Transfer

Question 1

Define near and far transfer. (1 point)

Answer 1

Near transfer is when what is being learned and what it affects are quite similar (if not virtually identical). This is easy (if not trivial).

Far transfer is when there is a bigger difference (on any dimension) between what is being learned and what it affects. This is harder. (e.g. does practising driving on regular roads prepare you for a crash scenario?)

A significant debate over the last 100+ years has been how often far transfer happens in reality. Some argue (Detterman, 1993) that it virtually never happens spontaneously. Others argue that it can happen spontaneously (Halpern, 1998).

Question 2

Describe the Doctrine of Formal Discipline. (1 point)

Answer 2

The Doctrine of Formal Discipline (Aristotle) holds that the mind is composed of a set of general abilities. The precise content of what is learned is less important than the general principles of learning and problem solving.

The brain is seen as a muscle that can be pumped up with exercise. This is the premise behind education and brain training.

Question 3

Why is the occurrence of far transfer important to the classical view of education? (1 point)

Answer 3

The classic view of education is that students will be taught general learning and critical thinking skills that will then be transferrable to other domains for life. However, we know that this is an example of far transfer, which is highly difficult. This calls into question the rational of the classical view of education

In this way - Education could be viewed as an attempt to create experts from novices, using far transfer.

Question 4

Give an example that illustrates the domain-specificity of expertise. (1 point)

Answer 4

Evidence from expertise indicates that it is extremely domain-specific, because it is based on having a large body of highly-organised domain-specific knowledge.
That is, there appears to be little far transfer between different domains of expertise (Detterman, 1993).

EXAMPLE:
One memory champion, Chao Lu (who remembered pi to over 67,000 digits) only had an average digit span (Baddeley et al., 2015, p.481). That is, maybe even what might be considered near transfer is less common than expected.

Question 5

Why does our understanding of expertise raise problems for the likelihood of far transfer? (1 point)

Answer 5

Evidence from expertise indicates that it is extremely domain-specific, because it is based on having a large body of highly-organised domain-specific knowledge.
That is, there appears to be little far transfer between different domains of expertise (Detterman, 1993).

Because we know that expertise is highly domain specific, and relies on mental representions and chunking obtained within that specific domain. The idea of far trainser, where knowledge or skills obtained in on domain or context can transfer to another, completely contradicts this idea. For example, its not that hard to cocieve that it is not even that far a transfer for someone who can remember 30000 digits of pi to be able to remember a large amount of symbols. Hwoever, when tested he was not able to.

Question 6

Describe Carraher et al.’s (1985) experiment involving far transfer in Brazilian school children (methods, results, conclusions). (3 points)

Answer 6

METHODS: studied Brazilian school children who also worked as street vendors - Carraher et al. posed as customers and bought things from them, recording the number of correct calculations (e.g. 5 lemons at 35 cruzeiros each = 175)

They then invited the same children to the lab and gave them exactly the same sums as mathematical problems (e.g. 5 x 35 = ?).

RESULTS: 98% correct on the street vs 37% in the lab as math problems. Also when the sums were written as word problems (nearer to their initial learning), performance improved to 74%.

CONCLUSIONS: This was taken as evidence that far transfer failed in this context (and hence one goal of the education system had also failed).

Question 7

Describe Burrage et al.’s (2008) study looking at the effects of formal education on working memory (participants, methods, results, conclusions). (3 points)

Answer 7

There is some evidence of far transfer:

PARTICITIPANTS: comparing kids whose ages were 2 months to either side of the cut-off date for school entry (i.e. they either went to school or didn’t for the following year – and so were nearly matched for age and other factors).

METHODS: tested on executive function tests, such as auditory working memory.

RESULTS: The kids who went to school did better on executive function tests, such as auditory working memory.

CONCLUSIONS: The authors concluded that formal education improved genernal intellectual development in this area, meaning far transfer had occurred

Question 8

Describe Lehman et al.’s (1988) study looking at the effects of a university education on general reasoning abilities (participants, methods, results, conclusions). (3 points)

Answer 8

Another defence of the Doctrine of Formal Discipline has come from Lehman et al. (1988).

PARTICIPANTS/METHODS: compared 1st and 3rd year university students (cross-sectionally AND longitudinally) doing law, medicine, psychology, and chemistry on two types of general reasoning.

They predicted medicine & psychology should improve general statistical & methodological reasoning (no effect for chemistry or law). They predicted that law, medicine, & psychology should improve general conditional reasoning (no effect for chemistry).

RESULTS:

CONCLUSION: spontaneous far transfer is possible – but only if you do a psychology degree.

Question 9

What did Barnett & Ceci (2002) propose was the reason behind differing outcomes amongst studies investigating far transfer? (1 point)

Answer 9

Conclusion: spontaneous far transfer is possible – but only if you do a psychology degree.

Barnett & Ceci (2002) argued that the reason for the inconsistent views on far transfer is because not all transfer is equal.

Question 10

Describe six “take home” messages from the transfer literature. (3 points)

Answer 10

1. Don’t assume that transfer will occur spontaneously
2. Define clearly what types of transfer you want from your training
3. Specifically design to maximise likelihood of the types of transfer specified occurring
4. Turn FAR transfer (hard) into NEAR transfer (easier) if possible
5. If you want people to transfer a skill or some knowledge in some way, explicitly tell them this goal. This may involve persuasive communication strategies.
6. Treat transfer as a skill in itself that may need training

Question 11

What were three aspects of skill/ knowledge transfer CONTENT that Barnett & Ceci (2002) proposed to understand the variety of outcomes in far transfer studies? (2 points)

Answer 11

1 . WHAT is the SKILL
2. HOW will change performance
3. will they be prompted? (no prompts = harder)

1. Consider specifically WHAT skill or knowledge you want people to transfer
2. Consider HOW you want the trainee’s performance to change as a result of the transfer (e.g. improved accuracy, improved speed, improved strategic approach).
3. Consider whether trainees need to spontaneously apply the transferred skill to a new domain (no prompts = very hard) – or whether it will be obvious (e.g. they’ll get prompted).

Question 12

Describe six aspects of skill/ knowledge transfer CONTEXT that Barnett & Ceci (2002) proposed to understand the variety of outcomes in far transfer studies. (3 points)

Answer 12

1. KNOWLEGE DOMAIN (near: Psyc2010 SPSS to Psyc3020 SPSS, far: applying 3020 measurement theory to astronomy)
2. PHYSICAL CONTEXT (near: UQ lab to QUT lab)

3: TEMPORAL CONTEXT (near: same session i.e, mins later)

4. FUNCTIONAL CONTEXT (near: Course workbook to assignment)
5. SOCIAL CONTEXT (near: Individually for training and outcome)
6. MODALITY (Multi choice quiz in both training and outcome)

Question 13

Describe Gick & Holyoak’s (1980) experiment investigating problem solving by analogy (methods, results, conclusions). (3 points)

Answer 13

If transfer doesn’t often occur spontaneously then can it happen if we explicitly prompt people?

METHODS: Gick & Holyoak (1980) asked people to solve two problems with the same underlying structure and solution, but different surface elements.

Military problem: how can you attack a fortress at the intersection of mined roads without blowing everyone up?
Medical problem: how can you zap a tumour with radiation without destroying the surrounding tissue?

RESUTLS: Gick & Holyoak’s participants didn’t tend to notice the connection between the two problems spontaneously – but did once they were prompted that there might be one. They were essentially primed to look beyond the “surface elements” of two problems to the same “deep” structure.

CONCLUSIONS: We should treat transfer itself as an acquired skill

Question 14

Describe three strategies for enabling students to transfer deep knowledge (Willingham, 2009). (2 points)

Answer 14

Examples, Explicitly, Practise

1. Use lots of diverse, familiar, non-abstract examples and give people the opportunity to pick out what they have in common. (EXAMPLES
   
   • UNDERLYING PRINICPLE)
2. EXPLICITLY tell them to learn the deep structure, not just the superficial feature
3. Give people PRACTICE in transferring the deep knowledge to new contexts.

Question 15

Describe three strategies for improving motor skill transfer (Schmidt & Lee, 2014). (2 points)

Answer 15

Same as for DEEP KNOWLEGE:

1. Point out similarities (or differences) among skills (UNDERLYING PRINICPLE)
2. EXPLICITLY use verbal cues to emphasize transfer (if 2 things have the same underlying structure – label them the same). E.g. “kips” in gymnastics (this is the same underlying skill whether it is done on horizontal bar, rings, or parallel bars).
3. Use variable PRACTISE, e.g. if your physiotherapy client has to practice getting out of a chair then do it using as many different chairs or actions as possible.

Question 16

What did Shah et al. (2017) conclude from their generally positive review of the brain training literature? (1 point)

Answer 16

At least some commercially available computerized brain training products can assist in promoting healthy brain aging

Question 17

Describe three methodological problems associated with the braining training literature. (2 points)

Answer 17

1. the problem with generating an appropriate placebo group.
   (i.e.)
   How similar does the placebo control intervention have to get before it is still not brain training but nonetheless allows us to dismiss motivational/expectation confounds?
2. Traditional neuropsychological tests look like brain training exercises. So, when brain training improves “working memory” – is this more “training to the test”?
3. Who is in your sample (GENERALIZABILITY?) (most studies are on impaired or aged groups – but claims are made for all ages and health levels).

Question 18

Describe one study that found far transfer effects for brain training. (1 point)

Answer 18

Useful Field of View training reduces crash involvement in older drivers by 50% (Ball et al., 2010).

Question 19

What are the arguments for and against engaging in brain training based on the current evidence? (2 points)

Answer 19

AGAINST - Placebo -cheaper?

• effects could still in principle be some sort of placebo/expectation effect - If just placebo - we could maybe get this same effect in a cheaper way that ‘brain training’

FOR - Placebo still works?

If brain training is only a placebo effect – but is nonetheless effective in, say, reducing dementia risk – then should people still do it? Are we being overcritical?

Question 20

What is part-task practice? (1 point)

Answer 20

break up a skill into subskills to be practiced independently

i.e. only kick and snare before adding hi-hat

Question 21

Describe two circumstances when we should consider part-task practice. (1 point)

Answer 21

1. FULL SKILL TOO HARD: could be that the final skill is too hard to be done initially – so the sub-components need to be mastered first.
2. FULL SKILL TOO INVOLVED: Or it could be that typical performance of the final skill involves too much time performing skill components that have already been mastered (i.e. it might be better to focus more time on the subskills that have not yet been mastered).

Question 22

Describe Schmidt & Lee’s (2014) three principles of part-task practice. (2 points)

Answer 22

1. WHEN GOOD: If the skill involves a slow, serial task, where there is limited interaction between components, progressive part practice can be effective
2. WHEN BAD: If the task is very brief and involves a specific “programmed” movement then part training might be unhelpful and even counterproductive
3. INTERACTION: The greater the level of interaction between the parts of an skill, the less likely part-task practice will work.

Question 23

Describe five situations in which we might consider the use of simulation for training. (2 points)

Answer 23

1. EXPENSIVE
2. DANGEROUS
3. RARE (i.e. preparing for war)
4. NOT IDEAL FOR PRACISE FACTORS: When practice factors, such as feedback, motivation, and practice scheduling, are not ideal for learning in the real task.
5. IMPRACTICAL: When opportunities for real-task practice are constrained (e.g. cycling on a treadmill instead of a velodrome; playing drums on rubber pads rather than an acoustic kit).

Question 24

Describe how the Top Gun school achieved far transfer in aerial combat. (2 points)

Answer 24

US air force/navy were doing badly in Vietnam – so they set up the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School.

1. EXPERTS: They picked best pilots to be trainers and used many aspects of deliberate practice.
2. SIMULATION: Trainers would engage in simulated dogfights with the trainees (and generally win).
3. FEEDBACK: After-action reports” (debriefing feedback) were considered a key element: (“What did you notice?”; “Why did you do that?”; “What could you have done differently?”).
4. PRACTISE: this process was repeated over and over

This program is credited with having a massive impact on real battle success (Ericsson & Poole, 2016). In other words, it achieved far transfer.

Question 25

What is the key question we need to consider when designing simulation-based training? (1 point)

Answer 25

TRANSFER: to what extent does practice in the simulation transfer to the performance of the actual task?

Question 26

Name and define the two types of simulator fidelity we need to consider when designing a simulation for training. (1 point)

Answer 26

Physical fidelity “LOOK”
- how realistic the simulation “looks”, in terms of its physical experience of being in the simulator.

Psychological fidelity “FEEL”
- : how realistic the simulation “feels”. This is the extent to which people behave in the simulator as they would in the real task.

Question 27

Describe the Theory of Identical Elements.

Answer 27

Competing theory to the doctrine of formal discipline:

Theory of Identical Elements says that the extent to which transfer occurred depended on the elements that were shared between the domains.

“significant transfer is probably rare and accounts for very little human behaviour… We generally do what we have learned to do and no more. The lesson learned from studies of transfer is that, if you want people to learn something, teach it to them. Don’t teach them something else and expect them to figure out what you really want them to do.”

Question 28

What were Simons et al.’s (2016) four skeptical conclusions regarding the brain training literature? (2 points)

Answer 28

1. We find extensive evidence that brain-training interventions improve performance on the trained tasks

HOWEVER little evidence that such interventions improve:

1. performance on closely related tasks
2. performance on distantly related tasks
3. everyday cognitive performance