TRANSFER OF COMPOSED KNOWLEDGE IN A MULTISTEP SERIAL TASK

Several major theories of skill acquisition assume that with continued practice on a serial task component processes are merged together into larger knowledge structures. Two experiments tested alternative hypotheses regarding the transfer of knowledge following extended practice on a serial task by determining whether component knowledge or merged knowledge is transferred between two tasks. Results from Experiment 1 were shown to be consistent with the assumption that merged knowledge can be transferred to a novel task. Results from Experiment 2 showed that, after extended practice on the original task, the amount of merged knowledge shared by the original and transfer tasks was a better predictor of performance on the transfer task than was the amount of shared component knowledge. These findings extend current theories of skill transfer and provide important constraints for theories of skill acquisition.