Transfer : review, reconstruction, and resolution

Abstract

Siirtovaikutus- eli transfertutkimus tarkastelee sitä, kuinka ihmisen käyttäytyminen riippuu hänen aikaisemmista kokemuksistaan. Tutkimus on kehittynyt voimakkaasti sen jälkeen, kun aihetta koskevat ensimmäiset psykologiset tutkimukset esitettiin 1900-luvun alkupuolella. Alan tutkimuksissa on kuitenkin runsaasti teoreettisia mielipide-eroja. Sacha Helfenstein tekee väitöstutkimuksessaan laajan katsauksen siirtovaikutustutkimuksen eri suuntauksiin ja näkökulmiin. Hän selvittää, millaisissa olosuhteissa transferia tapahtuu, mitä informaatiota sen aikana siirtyy, ja kuinka tämä informaation siirtyminen välitetään oppimis- ja transfertilanteiden välillä. Tästä lähtökohdasta hän rekonstruoi kokonaisnäkemystä siirtovaikutuksesta.

Starting out with a broad review of transfer research, i.e., the study of the dependency of human conduct on prior experience, the thesis elucidates the hampering current day situation of empirical, psychological, and conceptual segmentation. Broadly spread themes of interest are uncovered and linked to the three basic questions about where or when transfer takes place, what is carried over, and how this exchange is mediated. In the main, reconstructive part of the thesis, two distinct families of theoretical traditions are discerned and identified as common element-based and schema-based conceptualization of transfer. Conceptual cohesion within these traditions is shown to be overshadowed by some very basic controversies between them. The thesis continues by arguing for a content-based psychological approach resulting in the proposal of the content- and apperception-based theory of transfer. Mental contents and apperception are identified as the essential medium and process mechanism establishing transfer as a cognitively instantiated relation or concordance between mental representations. A key theoretical and methodological message is inherent to the propagated move away from looking at mental format and capacity issues in operationalization towards the identification of critical, in particular non-perceivable kinds of mental contents in representations. Empirical support is presented in the context of the four original publications. It is demonstrated that content-based research can reveal variability in experimentally induced transfer that is not predictable based on traditional theoretical notions. The findings are explained on the bases of the inter-dependency between the dynamics in mental contents (such as the apperceived use of objects or thought models) and their bindings to integrative representational wholes during apperception. Overall, the thesis contributes to the resolution of theoretical diversity and conflicts by impacting research on a meta-theoretical level. The reconstructed theory of transfer is also shown to have the capacity to reveal novel aspects to the phenomenon. A future pursuit and development of the content-based approach is strongly suggested.