ABSTRACT
The training of cognitive abilities has been an object of study since the turn of the century, when learning phenomena started to be systematically investigated. The question posed then was how learning shapes current responses and how previous learning can affect subsequent behaviour. This is the problem of transfer of training, to which, despite a century’s efforts at its conceptualization and measurement, a definitive answer has not yet been found (Cormier and Hagman 1987; de Corte 1987). The fact is, as Fleishman (1987) pointed out, we need to know more about the abilities used by the learner for both the training and the transfer tasks, and their interaction with training methods.
