Transfer and Problem Solving

Abstract

Abstract The following three themes are the storyline around which this chapter is developed. The first theme is the identification of a philosophy of science that guides the study of adaptive human behavior where human learning is a primary agent of change, and transfer and problem solving are but special cases. The second theme is a selective historical review of transfer and problem-solving research in the United States that identifies: (1) major theoretical models and metaphors and (2) the methods and materials used to test respective theories. This chronology includes (1) initial efforts (circa 1900-1920), (2) verbal learning research (circa 1920-1970), and (3) the cognitive revolution (circa 1970-present). The third theme is a subtheme that involves identifying similarities and differences in the study of transfer and problem solving between 1900 and 1970. This subtheme is carried over into the early decades of the third era (cognitive revolution). By the decade of the 1990s, we see attempts at integrating the study of transfer and problem solving with the introduction of problem-solving transfer. This integrative effort relies on a reintegration of (1) a philosophy of science of human behavior, (2) pragmatic conceptual models and metaphors of transfer and problem solving, coupled with (3) a reconsideration of materials and experimental research methods.

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