Practice in writing code produced practically no transfer to digit-letter substitution: the practiced group gained 12%, two percent less than the unpracticed control group.¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1918 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? On the digit-letter substitution test the practiced group's final gain (12%) was slightly smaller than the control group's, indicating the effect of code practice on that ability was practically nil. → Dearborn 1918

Evidence¶

Dearborn 1918¶

Dearborn, W. F., and Brewer, J. M. (1918). Methods and Results of a Class Experiment in Learning. The Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. IX, No. 2. https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/edu/9/2/

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Control-group comparison in the results section: a practiced class and two control classes took the same tests twelve working days apart. The digit-letter substitution gain of the practiced group was "12%", two percent below the unpracticed control group's gain.

"As a matter of fact the actual per cent, of improvement recorded in this test is 12%, which is actually two per cent, less than the gain made by the unpracticed or control group."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• The practiced group exceeded the control group on three of five tests (complex dotting, number code, letter code translation) by 5, 9, and 15 percent respectively, but did no better on digit-symbol substitution and slightly worse on digit-letter substitution. — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Practice produced large within-task speed gains: averaging 89 per cent for letter cancellation and over 200 per cent for digit-for-letter substitution — related
• Letter-cancellation practice produced only small gains and some losses in parts-of-speech cancellation, while the unpracticed control group gained on all parts of speech — related
• Practice in substituting digits for letters transferred positively to writing symbols for digits but interfered with writing digits for symbols — related
• Cancellation test ability shows no relation, and possibly an inverse relation, to abilities shown in the other tests — related