Capacities for abstract thinking and problem-solving are central to human cognition. Processes of abstraction allow the transfer of experiences and knowledge between contexts helping us make informed decisions in new or changing contexts. While we are often inclined to relate such reasoning capacities to individual minds and brains, they may in…

Infants start to use a spoon for self-feeding at the end of the first year of life, but usually do not use unfamiliar tools to solve problems before the age of 2 years. We investigated to what extent 18-month-old infants who are familiar with using a spoon for self-feeding are able to generalize this tool-use ability to retrieve a distant object.…

Toddlers show high sensitivity to creator's intention when they interpret pictures. Previous research suggest that toddlers' performance can be facilitated in a picture comprehension task by making available the creator's intention that is, the social origin of picture-creation. The present study aims to test the generalizability of this…

Educators aim to equip students with learning strategies they can apply when approaching new problems on their own. Teaching design-thinking strategies may support this goal. A first test would show that the strategies are good for learning and that students spontaneously transfer them beyond classroom instruction. To examine this, we introduce…

Research indicates that people do not spontaneously transfer prior clues to solve problems, even though the necessary information is available in memory. To investigate the effects of the symmetry between clue statements and problem statements on problem solving performance, subjects were asked to provide plausible explanations for five…

Two experiments were performed to determine whether practice on less complex problems, either smaller size or in familiar context, produces a strategy that transfers to similar but more complex problems. Practice on familiar problems was no more effective than practice on unfamiliar for transfer to another unfamiliar context for all sizes. (Author)

Third grade children were trained in component processes of problem solving strategies and were subsequently tested on ability to transfer the strategies to novel situations. Results indicate that, contrary to the Piagetian position, generalizable problem solving strategies were acquired at this age level. (Author/GO)

Learners must acquire a general strategic orientation in their problem solving, to determine what counts as relevant information in problematic situations. A dynamic systems approach is called for in determining whether general or context-specific instructions are needed to promote transfer of relevant information to novel conditions. (Author/JDD)

This study of 75 gifted students in grades 6-8 found that the group receiving Creative Problem Solving training with transfer strategies infused had a higher percentage of students applying the strategies to problems out of the context of the training sessions, compared to control group students and students receiving traditional training.…

Students often fail to apply knowledge and skills learned in one context to other situations. Although the implicit assumption in educational practice has been that transfer takes care of itself, a knowledge of the mechanisms of transfer can enable educators to help their students integrate general and local knowledge. (TE)

Discusses the impact of computer programing instruction on cognitive skills and suggests two mechanisms of transfer--low road, from practice, and high road, from generalization. Previous research that tried to measure transfer from programing is reviewed, six categories in which transfer might occur are presented, and 71 references are provided.…

Study explored how analog type and format and learner's prior knowledge would affect transfer outside of an experimental setting, examining the relationship between the analog's contextual elements and high school freshmen's performance on a science problem. Some students spontaneously applied structural elements on the analog to the solution. (SM)

Research on Vygotsky's zone of proximal development theory was used as a foundation to investigate differences in the learning and transfer ability of 30 students with learning disabilities (LD) and 30 students with matched low achievement (LA), from grades 7 and 8. The two groups were assessed on their problem-solving ability on a balance scale…

Four experiments were conducted to determine the source of difficulty of Wason's THOG problem. The THOG problem permits examination of the way people tackle a novel hypothetico-deductive problem. The results are interpreted as demonstrating the importance of problem presentation in problem solving. (Author/PN)

Discusses paradigmatic teaching, or teaching for analogical transfer, which requires teaching a basic structure by appropriate examples, as well as teaching its application in various fields and contexts. Examples for problem solving, inductive thinking, and learning to learn are given, and a training program with adult learners is described. (15…