Transfer in Learning New Vocabulary: Memorization and Abstraction

An experiment was conducted to examine whether knowledge of word meanings enables learners to infer the meanings of related words, and whether such transfer is based on memory for related exemplars or for abstract knowledge. Participants completed a word root learning task in which they learned definitions of several English words derived from a shared root (e.g., ambler, noctambulant). At an immediate test, they were assessed on definitions of studied words, new unstudied derivatives (e.g., ambulate), and word roots (e.g., ambul). A multiple regression analysis showed that accuracy on word roots, but not on studied words, predicted performance on new derivatives. These results suggest that transfer of learning was based primarily on more abstract knowledge of word root meanings rather than on memory for specific words. These findings provide novel evidence that learners can apply root-based knowledge to new word forms, and are consistent with theories proposing that transfer is supported by abstract representations.