Chapter 11 Exercises

Transfer: How to Learn Something Once and Use It Everywhere

Section A: Foundational Concepts (Remember/Understand)

Exercise 1: Core Definitions Define each of the following terms in your own words without looking at the chapter. For each, provide one original example — not one from the chapter.

a) Near transfer b) Far transfer c) Surface similarity d) Structural similarity e) Abstract schema

Exercise 2: Terminology Matching Match each term to its correct definition without referring to the chapter:

Exercise 3: True or False Determine whether each statement is true or false. If false, explain why.

a) Near transfer happens automatically and is relatively common, while far transfer requires deliberate effort and is relatively rare.

b) In the Gick and Holyoak fortress-radiation study, most students spontaneously transferred the military solution to the medical problem.

c) Low road transfer requires extensive practice and depends on surface similarity between situations.

d) Bridging promotes low road transfer by making practice resemble application conditions.

e) Transfer-appropriate processing suggests that the best study method is the one that feels most comfortable, because comfort signals learning.

f) An abstract schema is a concrete, detailed example that illustrates a principle.

g) The main barrier to transfer is that people lack the ability to reason analogically — they genuinely cannot see structural similarities.

h) Variation of practice (Chapter 10) promotes transfer because it broadens encoding conditions and reduces context-dependency.

Exercise 4: Fill in the Gaps Complete each sentence from memory:

a) Transfer is the ability to take what you've learned in _ context and use it in a _ context.

b) The Gick and Holyoak study found that only about _% of students spontaneously transferred the fortress solution to the radiation problem, but when told to think about the military story, about _% succeeded.

c) _ similarity refers to observable features like characters, settings, and vocabulary, while _ similarity refers to underlying relationships, logic, and causal patterns.

d) _ road transfer is automatic and reflexive, while _ road transfer is deliberate and conscious.

e) Perkins and Salomon identified two strategies for promoting transfer: _, which makes practice resemble application, and _, which explicitly prompts connections across domains.

Exercise 5: Concept Map Create a concept map connecting the following terms: transfer, near transfer, far transfer, surface similarity, structural similarity, analogical reasoning, abstract schema, high road, low road, bridging, hugging. Draw arrows between connected concepts and label each arrow with the relationship (e.g., "promotes," "depends on," "is a type of").

Section B: Application (Apply)

Exercise 6: Your Transfer Audit List three things you've learned in the past month — from any course, skill, or life experience. For each: 1. Classify whether you've been using it only in the original context (no transfer) or in additional contexts (transfer occurring). 2. If no transfer has occurred, identify one specific context where the knowledge or skill could apply. 3. Determine whether that potential transfer would be near or far. 4. Decide whether bridging or hugging would be more effective for promoting the transfer, and explain why.

Exercise 7: The Isomorphic Problem Hunt Below are three problems. Your task is to identify which pairs are isomorphic — same structure, different surface features.

Problem A: A small town has one bridge connecting two neighborhoods. The bridge can handle 100 cars per hour. During rush hour, 200 cars need to cross. How could the town reduce congestion without building a new bridge?

Problem B: A website's checkout page can process 100 transactions per minute. During a flash sale, 200 customers try to check out simultaneously. How could the company handle the load without upgrading the server?

Problem C: A farmer has a field that produces 100 bushels of wheat per acre. The farmer needs 200 bushels but cannot acquire more land. How could the farmer increase yield?

Which problems are isomorphic? What is the shared abstract structure? Which problem is structurally different, and why?

Exercise 8: Transfer-Appropriate Processing Redesign For each of the following study scenarios, the study method doesn't match the application. Redesign the study method so that the processing transfers appropriately.

a) Current: Studying for an oral exam by silently reading notes. Application: Explaining concepts verbally under time pressure. Redesigned study method: ___

b) Current: Preparing for a job interview by memorizing answers to common questions. Application: Responding to unexpected follow-up questions that require adapting your answers in real time. Redesigned study method: ___

c) Current: Learning guitar by watching YouTube tutorial videos. Application: Playing songs from memory at a gathering. Redesigned study method: ___

d) Current: Studying Spanish by completing grammar worksheets. Application: Having a conversation with a Spanish speaker at a restaurant. Redesigned study method: ___

Exercise 9: Bridging Practice Choose a concept from one of your current courses or learning projects. Complete the bridging exercise:

1. State the concept in its original context.
2. State the abstract principle it represents (strip away the domain-specific details).
3. Identify three domains where the same principle applies.
4. For each domain, explain specifically how the principle manifests — what does it look like in that context?
5. Reflect: Was step 2 (abstraction) or step 3 (finding new domains) harder? What does that tell you about where transfer breaks down for you?

Exercise 10: Hugging Design Think about an upcoming test, presentation, performance, or real-world application of something you're learning. Design a "hugging" practice session that replicates the application conditions as closely as possible. Be specific: - What conditions of the real application will you replicate? - What conditions can't you replicate, and how will you approximate them? - How is this different from your normal study routine? - What transfer benefits do you expect from the closer match?

Section C: Analysis (Analyze)

Exercise 11: Why Transfer Failed For each scenario, identify which of the five transfer failure modes from Section 11.8 is the primary problem, and suggest a specific intervention.

a) A student learns about confirmation bias in psychology class and writes an excellent essay about it. Two months later, they plan a research project and only look for evidence supporting their hypothesis. They never connect this behavior to confirmation bias.

b) A chess player who has studied hundreds of opening strategies shows no improvement in strategic planning at work.

c) A nursing student excels at medication-interaction questions in class but fails to catch a dangerous interaction in a clinical rotation because the real patient's chart was organized differently from the textbook examples.

d) A student who learned problem-solving techniques in one math class can only apply them to problems formatted the same way as the ones in that class.

e) A business student learns about supply-demand dynamics in economics and later encounters the same dynamic in their ecology class (predator-prey populations) but doesn't recognize the connection.

Exercise 12: Comparing Dr. Okafor and Marcus Analyze the transfer experiences of Dr. James Okafor and Marcus Thompson:

a) What type of transfer is each primarily experiencing — near or far? Justify your answer.

b) Which of them is more likely to succeed at transfer without deliberate effort? Why?

c) For each, identify the abstract schema they've extracted. How are the schemas similar? How are they different?

d) Both use bridging. Compare the specific bridging strategies they use. Are they doing the same thing, or different things?

e) What role does prior expertise play in each case? Is extensive experience always an advantage for transfer, or can it sometimes be a disadvantage?

Exercise 13: Surface vs. Structure Diagnosis A student is struggling to transfer their understanding of essay writing from English class to writing lab reports in biology. They say, "But they're completely different — essays have thesis statements and lab reports have hypotheses. Essays use persuasive language and lab reports use technical language."

a) Is the student focusing on surface similarity or structural similarity? b) What structural similarities exist between essays and lab reports that the student is missing? c) Design a bridging exercise that would help this student see the structural connections. d) Would hugging be useful here? Why or why not?

Exercise 14: The Transfer Paradox of Expertise Chapter 11 argues that expertise helps transfer (Dr. Okafor's diagnostic reasoning, Marcus's teaching skills). But some research suggests that expertise can hinder transfer — experts sometimes get trapped by their domain-specific knowledge and fail to see novel solutions. This is sometimes called the "Einstellung effect" or "functional fixedness."

a) Using the concepts from this chapter, explain why expertise could both help and hinder transfer. b) Under what conditions would expertise promote transfer? c) Under what conditions might it block transfer? d) What role does the distinction between surface and structural similarity play in determining whether expertise helps or hurts?

Exercise 15: Mapping the Interleaving-Transfer Connection Chapter 7 introduced interleaving, and Chapter 11 claims that interleaving promotes transfer. Using the concepts from both chapters, build a step-by-step causal chain explaining how interleaving leads to better transfer. Your chain should include at least four steps and reference at least three concepts from Chapter 11 (e.g., surface similarity, structural similarity, abstract schema, transfer-appropriate processing).

Section D: Synthesis and Reflection (Apply/Analyze)

Exercise 16: The Transfer Journal (Core Progressive Project Exercise) This is the core exercise for this chapter's progressive project. Over the next five days:

1. At the end of each study session, write a brief journal entry answering: - What concept or skill did I practice today? - What is the abstract principle behind it? - Where else could this principle apply? - Did I notice any connections to other domains during the session?

2. At the end of the five days, review your entries. Identify: - How many transfer connections did you find? - Were most near or far transfer? - Was finding the abstract principle easy or hard? - Did the practice get easier over the five days?

3. Write a one-paragraph reflection on what this exercise taught you about your own transfer habits.

Exercise 17: Teaching Transfer to Someone Else Write a 300-word explanation of why transfer is important and how to promote it, aimed at a friend who has never taken a learning science course. Your explanation should: - Define transfer in everyday language (no jargon) - Give one concrete example of near transfer and one of far transfer - Include one specific, actionable strategy your friend could start using today - Avoid the terms "abstract schema," "isomorphic," and "transfer-appropriate processing" — explain the ideas in plain language

Then, if possible, actually explain it to someone. Note their questions. What did they find surprising? What did they resist?

Exercise 18: The Full Transfer Design Choose a concept you're currently learning that you believe is transferable. Design a complete learning experience that maximizes transfer:

1. Learn it: Describe how you'll initially learn the concept (what study methods?).
2. Abstract it: Describe how you'll extract the abstract principle (what questions will you ask yourself?).
3. Compare it: Identify two examples from different domains and describe how you'll compare them side by side.
4. Hug it: Describe how you'll make your practice resemble the application conditions.
5. Bridge it: Describe how you'll explicitly connect the concept to other domains.
6. Test it: Describe how you'll verify that transfer has actually occurred.

Exercise 19: Cross-Chapter Integration Create a table with three columns: Strategy (from Chapters 7-11), How It Promotes Transfer, and Example. Fill in at least eight strategies you've learned across Chapters 7-11 (e.g., retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, elaboration, dual coding, desirable difficulties, variation of practice, bridging) and explain specifically how each one promotes transfer. Use original examples, not ones from the textbook.

Exercise 20: The Anti-Transfer Audit Think about your current study habits. Identify three specific things you do that prevent transfer: - For each one, name the transfer failure mode it corresponds to (inert knowledge, surface fixation, context-dependent encoding, no abstract schema, or lack of metacognitive awareness). - For each one, design a specific intervention to fix it. - Rank the three interventions by how much impact you expect each to have on your learning, and commit to implementing the top-ranked one this week.

Section E: Challenge Problems

Exercise 21: The Transfer Debate Some researchers argue that far transfer is so rare that it's not worth teaching for — that education should focus on near transfer and domain-specific knowledge instead. Others argue that far transfer is the entire purpose of education. Write a 400-word argument for one side, using evidence and concepts from this chapter. Then write a 200-word rebuttal from the other side. Finally, state your own position and defend it.

Exercise 22: Designing a Transfer-Rich Course Imagine you're redesigning a course you've taken (or are currently taking) to maximize transfer. Identify: a) Three concepts from the course that have high transfer potential b) For each, the abstract principle and three target domains c) Specific bridging activities you would include d) Specific hugging activities you would include e) How you would assess whether transfer has occurred (hint: the assessment can't just test within-domain knowledge)

Exercise 23: The Marcus Thompson Challenge Marcus Thompson is a former teacher learning data science. Identify five additional structural similarities between teaching and data science that weren't mentioned in the chapter. For each one: - Name the teaching skill - Name the corresponding data science skill - Explain the shared abstract structure - Predict whether Marcus would recognize this connection spontaneously or need a bridging prompt

Exercise 24: Metacognitive Reflection on Transfer Write a reflection (300-400 words) addressing: Before reading this chapter, how often did you deliberately look for connections between what you were learning in one domain and other domains? Has this chapter changed how you think about the purpose of learning? If so, how? If not, why not? Be specific — describe at least one concrete change you plan to make in your study habits based on what you've learned about transfer.

Exercise 25: The Fortress Problem Revisited Design your own pair of isomorphic problems — two problems that have different surface features but identical underlying structures. Write each problem clearly, then write a "bridging prompt" that would help a learner see the structural connection between them. Finally, explain: What makes your bridging prompt effective? What structural features does it highlight?

Answers to selected exercises appear in Appendix I.