TRANSFER OF TRAINING BETWEEN SPACE-ORIENTED AND BODY-ORIENTED CONTROL SITUATIONS.

An experiment was designed to determine whether skill in a control task is learned as a pattern of body-oriented limb-movements, or as a system of space-oriented relationships. A control task was set up which could be correctly oriented: A, both bodily and spatially; B, bodily but not spatially; C, spatially but not bodily. Four groups of six subjects were used severally to study transfer of training from A to B, B to A, A to C, and C to A. It was found that transfer to condition C was significantly the worst. It is tentatively concluded that this type of skill is learned mainly as a body-oriented pattern of limb-movements.