e
positive connections made in building up the ideal.

In the discussion of transfer because of identity, it was emphasised
that the presence of identity of various types explained cases of
transfer that exist and made transfer possible. In no case must it be
understood, however, that the presence of these identical elements is a
warrant of transfer. Transfer _may_ take place under such conditions,
but it need not do so. Transfer is most sure to occur in cases of
identity of substance and least likely in cases of identity of attitude
or ideals. To have useful responses to six, above, city, quart, and so
on, in one situation will very likely mean responses of a useful nature
in almost all situations which have such elements present. It is very
different with the ideals. A child may be very accurate in handwork, and
yet almost nothing of it show elsewhere; he may be truthful to his
teacher and lie to his parents; he may be generous to his classmates and
the reverse to his brothers and sisters. Persistence in Latin may not
influence his work in the shop, and the critical attitude of geometry be
lacking in his science. Transfer in methods holds a middle ground. It
seems that the more complex and the more subtle the connections
involved, the less is the amount and the surety of the transfer.

In order to increase the probability of transfer when connections of
method or attitudes are being formed, first, it should be made
conscious, and second, it should be put into practice in several types
of situations. There is grave danger that the method will not be
differentiated from the subject, the ideal from the context of the
situation. To many children learning how to study in connection with
history, or to be critical in geometry, or to be scientific in the
laboratory, has never been separated from the particular situation. The
method or the ideal and the situation in which they have been acquired
are one--one response. The general elements of method or attitude have
never been made conscious, they are submerged in the particular subject
or situation, and therefore the probability of transfer is lessened. If,
on the other hand, the question of method, as an idea by itself, apart
from any particular subject, is brought to the child's attention; if
truth as an ideal, independent of context, is made conscious, it is much
more likely to be reacted to in a different situation, for it has become
a free idea and therefore crystallize