Prior Knowledge and New Learning: An Experimental Study of Domain-Specific Knowledge

It is commonly claimed that higher domain knowledge enhances new learning—the knowledge-is-power hypothesis. However, a recent meta-analysis (Simonsmeier et al., 2022) has challenged this idea, finding no overall relationship between prior knowledge and new learning across hundreds of highly variable effect sizes. The authors note that this variability and lack of randomized controlled experiments preclude broad claims regarding the influence of prior knowledge on learning. The present study (conducted in 2020) provides an experimental assessment of the causal effect of prior domain knowledge on new learning. Participants were randomly assigned to receive training in one of two academic domains over 3 days before learning new information about topics in both domains for a later test. Training was specific to three of four topics within that domain, allowing the untrained topic in the trained domain to act as a measure of new learning in that domain. New learning, measured as final test performance or knowledge gains, did not differ between the high and low domain knowledge conditions. Experimentally induced prior domain knowledge did not affect new learning.