AbstractsPsychology

The present investigation is concerned with the relation between environmental factors and the ability to transfer. Although many studies in the past have shown that differences in environment result in differences in I.Q., as measured by conventional intelligence tests, there has been less research measuring environmental effects on learning and transfer abilities. The typical approachof studies which deal with either differences in intelligence, or in learning and transfer abilities, has been to select subjects from different environments and, by testing, demonstrate significant differences in the ability in question. Using this method, the results invariably favor subjects from whichever is the "better" environment in the study. The present study treats environment as an independant variable, holding I.Q. constant, and attempts to show differences in transfer ability, the dependent variable, under these conditions. On the basis of the theoretical considerations and empirical results reviewed below, it was hypothesized that, with I.Q. held constant,children raised in a "restricted" environment would show greater facility for transfer than children from a "free" environment. [...]