In Search of Transfer Following Cued Recall Practice: The Case of Process-Based Biology Concepts

Previous work has demonstrated that cued recall of a term from a fact yields learning that does not transfer, relative to a restudy control, to recall of another term from the same fact. Here we report six experiments in which a series of manipulations during the initial study and training phases of learning, hypothesized to increase transfer for process-based biology concepts, were investigated. In Experiments 1 and 2, fill-in-the-blank questions combined with immediate or delayed and repeated correct answer feedback improved learning but not transfer. In Experiments 3 and 4, practice questions that involved recalling process steps, understanding ordinal relationships, or making inferences did not improve transfer. Positive transfer was produced, however, in Experiments 5 and 6 via "retrieval-verification-scoring," a new method in which difficult fill-in-the-blank questions were combined with extensive feedback processing. We discuss implications for transfer in both theoretical and applied contexts.