An Investigation in Negative Transfer: Theory of Inhibition

Abstract

Campbell and Robert (2012) found that numerical addition practice led to negative transfer on a subsequent test of numerical multiplication. Alternatively Rickard et al (2011) found negative transfer for numerical addition when participants were tested on an intermixed set of addition and subtractions problems after first practicing addition and then practicing subtraction. The present study sought to assess negative transfer by practicing participants with alphabet addition verification problems and testing the performance on alphabet multiplication verification. Ninety-five participants were split into 4 groups and given varying number of days of practice. During the test phase some multiplication verification problems included the same components as the practiced addition problems (e.g. B+3=E and Bx3=E). The results suggest that participants demonstrated significant learning of alphabet addition as well as negative transfer occurring for the alphabet multiplication problems when looking at an overall analysis. When looking at individual groups negative transfer was not seen

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