In everyday life it is a common experience to find that some established response interferes with the learning of some new response. Thus the automobile driver finds it somewhat difficult to learn to shift gears using a control on the steering column after having shifted them by means of an older type control. The typist finds that she has trouble learning to type on a second keyboard in which the keys are located in relatively different positions. These are examples of a phenomenon known as proactive inhibition. This term is generally used to refer to a decrement in performance or rate of learning of one task resulting from the prior learning of some other task
