They concluded, in a paper published in 1901, that learning in one area does not facilitate learning in other areas; rather, they argued, learning is transferred only when both the original and the new situation have similar elements. That is, if we understand A, and recognize something in B that resembles A, then we are well on our way to understanding B. In this view, learning new concepts has less to do with a change in a person’s learning ability than with the existence of commonalties. We do not learn new subjects because we have somehow become better learners but because we have become
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