Did you know that experts and novices don’t differ in the transfer of general knowledge about

learning?

By Estelle

In the field of cognitive science and motor skill, an important issue when studying
expertise is the intentional transfer of expert knowledge. Transfer is defined as the degree to
which a behavior will be repeated in a new situation”, and intentional transfer are the situations
in which the need to transfer is apparent to the learners (Ferrari, 1999). Self-regulation is also
thought to be central to affective transfer. This is an individuals’ ability to direct their own
activity through self-generated strategies, which provide metacognitive experiences about the
efficacy of their regulation of the task and there by allowing them to more accurately evaluate
their own learning.
Few studies have explored how expert and general knowledge influence self-regulation in
tasks that require intentional transfer. In this study, Michel Ferrari explored how the intentional
transfer of general and expert knowledge influences self-regulation of experts and novices in
karate. He proposed three hypotheses: first, due to their greater conceptual knowledge, experts
should be able to interpret the meaning of the new movements in terms of self-defense better
than novices; secondly, experts should learn more efficiently than novices; and finally, during
self-regulation of learning, both experts and novices should draw on domain-general
metacognitive (knowing about knowing) knowledge.
In this study, 20 men between the ages 17 and 42 years participated from four Shotokan
karate schools in Montreal. They were divided into two groups of 10, the experts being black
belts and the novices white belts. The participants had to learn a new sequence of self-defense
movements adapted from a closely related martial art, tai chi. The expert model performing the
sequence was filmed so that both the front and back of the movement could be viewed
simultaneously. All of the subjects were tested individually in a single 35-minute session, in
which the first part of the session involved a 25-minute learning period. Before the final
performance the participants were asked to evaluate how well they thought they learned the
sequence. After the performance subjects were asked what they thought the sequence meant.
The results showed that when it came to how the subjects learned the sequence, experts
and novices did not differ. They did not use the video play any differently nor did they differ in
the strategies used to learn the sequence. This finding suggests that when experts intentionally
transfer their expertise, they do not necessarily transfer any more domain-general knowledge
about how they regulate their learning than do novices. However, the study did find subtle
differences in expert and novice self-regulation. Novices spent more time imitating the video in
slow motion, while experts mentally reconstructed the video image. This suggested that experts
were more easily able to interpret the video image and thus the experts were able to address the
movements in terms of possible combat applications.
Investigating intentional transfer is important because the need to adapt knowledge and
skill to new circumstances often elicits generalization and transfer in the real world. This study
has some practical applications for the learning of experts. Although both experts and novices
were able to transfer their general knowledge about karate to tai chi, experts have more and
better-organized knowledge about the knowledge domain of their area of expertise. Experts are
able to effectively monitor and instruct themselves because of the well-developed representations
to build new knowledge, thus improving the quality of their performance. Therefore, experts are
able to take their prior knowledge and representations and apply them to new situations. In
addition, if novices are able to make the most of their limited domain-specific knowledge, they
can improve their task specific knowledge in new situations as well.

Ferrari, M. (1999). Influence of expertise on the intentional transfer of motor skill. Journal of
Motor Behavior, 31(1), 79-85.