Transfer between text editors

This paper describes a successful test of a quantitative model that accounts for large positive transfer effects between similar screen editors, between different line editors and from line editors to a screen editor, and between text and graphic editors. The model is tested in an experiment using two very similar full-screen text-editors differing only in the structure of their editing commands, verb-noun vs noun-verb. Quantitative predictions for training time were derived from a production system model based on the Polson and Kieras (1985) model of text editing.