The relationship between degree of original learning and degree of transfer

Summary An experiment was performed to determine the relationship between the accuracy of the original learning and the accuracy of transposition. The usual method of comparison of the average number of errors in the transposition test made by a group of rats trained to a criterion of 10 consecutive errorless trials with the average number of errors made by a group of rats trained to a criterion of 30 consecutive errorless trials reveals no clear difference between the groups.However, the degree of learning at the point when training ceased, plotted against errors made in transposition, brings out a clear relationship between degree of original learning and accuracy of transposition. Within the range of learning tested, the more accurate the original learning was, the more accurate was the transposition.My special thanks and appreciation are extended to Dr. Martin L. Reymert, the Director of the Mooseheart Laboratory for Child Research, for his encouragement in this work, and for furnishing the facilities for the experimental work.