Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement

Chapter 11. Learning vs. Performance: The Psychology of Transfer

Most researchers agree that transfer of learning seldom occurs

—HASKELL, 2001

EVEN IF YOU SUCCESSFULLY

build new mental models in long-term memory, when new knowledge and skills fail to transfer to the work environment, your efforts have failed. In this chapter, I summarize the psychological basis for transfer of learning to provide background for the transfer training methods described in Chapter 12. The topics include:

• Transfer: The bridge from training to performance

• Four tales of transfer failure

• Causes of transfer failure

• General versus specific theories of transfer

• Near-, moderate-, and far-transfer tasks

• Surface versus deep structure of tasks

Transfer: The Bridge from Training to Performance ...