S0151 · thorndike_transfer_of_training · registry identity
The Psychology of Learning Transfer
Bears on
Canonical propositions this source was matched as evidence for.
How Hirsch uses it
Every occurrence, grouped by book and chapter, with the claim it was linked to support and (where the extraction regenerated one) the underlying warrant.
1987 · Cultural Literacy
Edward Thorndike's research on the lack of automatic transfer of skills between different areas of study.
direct Edward Thorndike's psychological research vindicated the claim that skills acquired in one subject area do not automatically transfer to another.
Warrant (implicit): Psychological experiments showing that learning in one domain does not improve performance in another prove that 'formal discipline' or abstract skill training is ineffective.
could fail ifThorndike's experiments were often based on extremely narrow tasks (like estimating line lengths) that may not accurately reflect the complex transfer of thinking skills in academic subjects.
Thorndike's own acknowledgement that a limited degree of transfer occurs.
direct The principle of the nontransfer of training is not as absolute as the 1918 report suggested.
Warrant (implicit): Evidence of even limited transfer of training between tasks invalidates any educational policy based on the assumption that learning is entirely non-transferable.
could fail ifThe 'limited degree' of transfer acknowledged by Thorndike may be too negligible to justify the broad curriculum he was originally used to attack.
1996 · The Schools We Need
Research showing that skills are not transferred from one domain to another (e.g., Latin does not teach general thinking).
direct The theory of 'mental discipline' (that hard subjects generally train the mind) was scientifically disproved by Edward Lee Thorndike.
Warrant (implicit): If empirical testing shows no performance benefit in unrelated tasks after training in a specific subject, then the subject provides no general cognitive development.
could fail ifThorndike's early 20th-century instruments may have been too blunt to measure subtle, long-term shifts in executive function or 'far transfer' effects.
Endnote numbers seen
Raw book:chapter:endnote references collected during endnote backfill.
cl:5:24cl:5:27
Raw source_reference strings seen
As they appeared before normalization/consolidation into this source identity.
Cremin, The Transformation of the School, 110-115Cremin, The Transformation of the School, 113-14Edward Lee Thorndike