in specific transfer that transfer effects are positive or negative, and in some conditions there is zero effect, though in reality, due to general transfer, zero transfer is theoretically untenable. Let us try to understand the nature of general transfer and specific transfer. General (Generic) Transfer General transfer is not clearly conceptualised and defined in its details. However, prior learning predisposes one to learn another task in a better manner.
The learning of one task warms-up the learner to learn the next task more conveniently. You must have seen a cricketer going to the pitch to take her/his position near the wicket. The cricketer walks by jumping on one foot then on the other. S/he moves her/his two hands holding the bat sideways to loosen up.
When you write answers while appearing at the examination, your writing is slow and sitting position awkward for efficient writing. However, you get warmed up after having written two or three pages. Your speed increases and your body gets well adjusted to the writing task. This continues until the writing of the last answer is over.
After some time, warm-up effect disappears. Warm-up effect lasts over one session of . In the third case, the stimuli are same but responses are different. In such conditions also some positive transfer occurs.
. In the fourth case, the stimuli are different, but responses are the same. Therefore new associations with responses are to be learned. In this case positive transfer is obtained.
. In the fifth case, stimuli and responses are the same, but associations are altered. Because of this alteration, negative transfer occurs in the learning of the second task. It is so because the associations learned in the initial task interfere in the learning of new associations.
Such interferences are discussed in Chapter which deals with human memory. learning. Only in that session one can learn two or more tasks. Specific Transfer Whenever an organism learns something, it consists of a series of stimulus-response associations.
Any task can be understood as a chain of discriminable stimuli, each of which has to be