Bilateral Transfer of Learning
Aim
To demonstrate the phenomenon of bilateral transfer of learning.
Introduction
Learning is defined as any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential
produced by experience. The process of learning has certain distinctive characteristics. The
first feature is that learning always involves some kinds of experience. An event is
experienced occurring in a certain sequence on a number of occasions. For example, one
learns that if the bell rings in the hostel after sunset, then dinner is ready to be served.
Repeated experience of satisfaction after doing something in a specified manner leads to the
formation of habit. Sometimes a single experience can lead to learning. A child strikes a
matchstick on the side of a matchbox, and gets her/his fingers burnt. Such an experience
makes the child learn to be careful in handling the matchbox in future.
Second, behavioural changes that occur due to learning are relatively permanent. They must
be distinguished from the behavioural changes that are neither permanent nor learned. For
example, changes in behaviour often occur due to the effects of fatigue, habituation, and
drugs. These behavioural changes are temporary and are not considered learning. You must
have noticed that people who are on sedatives or drugs or alcohol, their behaviour changes as
it affects physiological functions. Such changes are temporary in nature and disappear, as the
effect wears out.
Learning involves a sequence of psychological events. This will become clear if a typical
learning experiment were to be described. Suppose psychologists are interested in
understanding how a list of words is learned. They will go through the following sequence:
(1) do a pre-test to know how much the person knows before learning, (2) present the list of
words to be remembered for a fixed time, (3) during this time the list of words is processed
towards acquiring new knowledge, (4) after processing is complete, new knowledge is
acquired, and (5) after some time elapses, the processed information is recalled by the person.
By comparing the number of words which a person now knows as compared to what s/he
knew in the pre-test, one infers that learning did take place. Thus, learning is an inferred
process and is different from performance. Performance is a person’s observed behaviour or
response or action. For instance, one is asked by the teacher to memorise a poem. Poem is
read a number of times, then the poem is learnt. The recitation of the poem by the student is
their performance. On the basis of the performance, the teacher infers that the student has
learned the poem.
There are two basic kinds of learning –non-associative learning and associative learning. Non
–associative learning, as the name suggests, does not involve associating stimulus with
responses, rather learning about a single stimulus. It includes habituation and sensitization.
Habituation is characterized by a decreased behavioural response to an innocuous stimulus.
In sensitization, there is an increase in a behavioural response to an intense stimulus. It
typically occurs when a noxious or fearful stimulus is presented to an organism. Both
habituation and sensitization are short-lived. Associative learning, on the other hand, involves
learning relationships among events and is more complicated. It is further classified as
classical conditioning and instrumental conditioning (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2009).
Classical conditioning is learning to make an involuntary response to a stimulus other than
the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the response. Operant conditioning is the
learning of voluntary behaviour through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences
to responses (Ciccarelli, 2015).
Bilateral learning is the acquisition of knowledge in one level of learning and can be
transferred or applied to other similar situations or tasks. There are three types of bilateral
transfer viz. Positive transfer, Negative transfer and Zero transfer. Positive transfer happens
when previous learning facilitates new learning. Negative transfer happens when previous
learning hinders new learning. Zero transfer happens when previous learning has no impact
on new learning. Bilateral transfer of learning is also the transference of physical
performance learned by one side of the body to the opposite side of the body. This type of
transfer is also called cross-limb transfer. This transfer of learning is made possible by the
two-way information traffic that exists through the corpus callosum, the band of fibres in the
brain that allows the two hemispheres to communicate and transfer information.
Review of Literature
The study was conducted in 2021 by Drew Schweiger, Richard Stone & Ulrike Genschel. It
explored the effects of training computer mouse use in the nondominant hand on clicking
performance of the dominant and nondominant hands. Computer mouse use is a daily
operation in the workplace and requires minute hand and wrist movements developed and
refined through practice and training for many years. The study had eleven right-handed
computer mouse users train their nondominant hand for 15 min a day, five days per week, for
six weeks. It found improved performance with the computer mouse in the dominant hand
following nondominant hand training because of the bilateral transfer effect of training.
Additionally, the study showed that the nondominant hand was capable of learning the
complex movements that one’s dominant hand has trained for many years. The research also
showed that nondominant hand performance decreased when the skill was not trained for
over a year, but the performance was significantly higher than that prior to the original
training and could be rapidly relearned.
The research was conducted by Ghaderi F.B., Bagherzadeh F.A., Aminian Razavi T.D.,
Gholam Alizadeh R. in 2006. It aimed at studying the effect of teaching dribbling in
basketball and evaluating how much the learning affects the opposing limbs and estimating
the effect of previous learning on the new skill and the transfer from one limb to the opposing
limb in female students of Tehran University. In the research, 32 female students were
selected randomly and assigned to 2 groups: A & B. In the first session, the aims and the
procedures were introduced. In the second session all the participants performed a pre-test in
which the performance of two hands was tested. At the end of the course, a final test was
performed on two hands. It was proved that the transfer of skill from preferred hand to non-
preferred hand was significant.
The aim of the research conducted by Boroujeni & Shahbazi (2011) was to study bilateral
transfer in badminton short service skill. The article highlighted that the recent researchers
have found out that the transfer principle is a very important facilitator in learning. The
sample taken in the research consisted of 200 female students from the University of Tehran,
out of which 36 of them were randomly chosen. The independent variable in the research was
‘exercise for the purpose of skill learning’, whereas the dependent variable was ‘the degree of
learning of hand which did not participate in the exercise.’ The materials used for the
research were a questionnaire and the necessary tools in French badminton test including
meter, scotch tape and a rope. To analyse the results, descriptive deductive statistical methods
(dependent and independent t-tests) have been used. The findings revealed that the bilateral
transfer of the two parts with one another would be possible.
Hypothesis
The number of errors and time taken will be lesser in last trial when compared to the first trial
of Non-Preferred Hand.
Method
Participant Preliminaries
Name: R.B.
Sex: Female
Age: 22
Educational Qualification: [Link]. Graduate
Design
Single subject pre-test post-test design
First, the subject will be asked to trace the star pattern by looking through the mirror using
the non-preferred hand (in the clockwise direction).Then practice trial will be given with the
preferred hand in a clockwise direction and then again one trial for the experimental
condition with the non-preferred hand. The time and error made will be recorded. This will
continue alternatively with non-preferred hand and preferred hand till 10 trials each
respectively.
Materials required
Apparatus for bilateral transfer of learning experiment, Stopwatch, Paper, and pen (for noting
down observations).
Variables
Independent variable: Learning Trials (Dominant Hand).
Dependent variable: Errors and Time-taken (Non-Dominant Hand).
Rapport formation
The participant was made to sit comfortably. A friendly conversation was held to make them
feel relaxed. When the participant felt at ease, the experiment was introduced. The
instructions were given and the participant was assured that confidentiality of their identity
would be maintained. The queries of the participant were addressed and the procedure was
started.
Administration
Instruction
“This is a star pattern within which you have to trace using the pen/pencil. You have to stay
within the boundary and every time you will touch the boundary will be counted as one error.
Time will be noted on each trial. You have to look at the mirror and not the paper at any point
of time during the experiment. First trial will be with your non dominant hand, the second
trial will be with your dominant hand and this will go on alternatively for 10 trials each
respectively. I will be calculating the number of errors and time taken in each trial.”
Precautions
The following precautions were kept in mind: (i) Proper lab conditions were maintained.
Working of the apparatus the stop watch was checked. (ii) For each trial, the start signal was
given to the subject. (iii) It was made sure that s/he was tracing the pattern by looking in the
mirror only. (iv) It was made sure s/he didn’t lift the pen/pencil outside the star pattern. (v) It
was also made sure that s/he should slide the pen/pencil by resting within the boundary walls
of the pattern. (vi) No to and fro movements were allowed.
Procedure
After having read out the instructions, conduction of the experiment was soon followed. The
subject was asked to trace the star pattern with the non-dominant hand first in the clockwise
direction and recordings were noted. Then the subject was asked to trace the star pattern
again, using dominant hand and accordingly recordings were noted down. This was repeated
alternatively with non-dominant and dominant hand respectively for total of 20 trials.
Introspective report
“I was curious to know how the apparatus works and what it will measure. In the beginning,
tracing the pattern was very challenging for me but then it became interesting as I aimed to
complete the task as soon as possible. It was very exciting and fun to perform.”
Observational report
The participant was very excited and curious to see what this experiment was about. The
participant was also calm at the same time and was not in a hurry to complete the experiment.
The participant listened carefully to all the instructions given and the experiment was carried
out calmly.
Result
S. No. N.P.H. Time P.H. Time
(Errors) Taken (Errors) Taken
1. 34 02:57 31 02:16
2. 28 01:51 26 01:16
3. 30 01:00 18 00:59
4. 20 00:48 14 00:50
5. 18 00:44 15 00:55
6. 17 00:44 13 00:50
7. 14 00:41 11 00:47
8. 12 00:42 13 00:44
9. 9 00:41 7 00:41
10. 10 00:40 8 00:40
11. 9 00:41 5 00:40
12. 6 00:39 3 00:37
N.P.H. Errors Time
Trial 1 34 02:57
Trial 12 6 39s
P.H. Errors Time
Trial 1 31 02:16
Trial 12 3 37s
Discussion
The aim of the experiment was to demonstrate the phenomenon of bilateral transfer of
learning. The results indicate that the number of errors and the time taken was lesser in the
last trial as compared to the first trial. It can be inferred that transfer of learning took place.
The study was conducted in 2021 by Drew Schweiger, Richard Stone & Ulrike Genschel. It
explored the effects of training computer mouse use in the nondominant hand on clicking
performance of the dominant and nondominant hands. The study had eleven right-handed
computer mouse users train their nondominant hand for 15 min a day, five days per week, for
six weeks. It found improved performance with the computer mouse in the dominant hand
following nondominant hand training because of the bilateral transfer effect of training.
Findings direct that phenomenon of bilateral transfer of learning takes place and that practice
is required for continued effect.
Conclusion
Bilateral learning is the acquisition of knowledge in one level of learning and can be
transferred or applied to other similar situations or tasks. This transfer of learning is made
possible by the two-way information traffic that exists through the corpus callosum, the band
of fibres in the brain that allows the two hemispheres to communicate and transfer
information. The hypothesis is that the number of errors and time taken will be lesser in last
trial when compared to the first trial of Non-Preferred Hand. From the experiment, it is held
true that the number of errors and the time taken was lesser in the later trial as compared to
the foremost trial for the non-dominant hand. Thus, it can be deduced that bilateral transfer of
learning took place.
References
Boroujeni.S.T. & Shahbazi.M., (2011) The Study of Bilateral Transfer of Badminton Short
Service Skill of Dominant Hand to Non-Dominant Hand and Vice Versa, Procedia–Social
and Behavioural Sciences Vol. 15, pp. 3127-3130
Ciccarelli, S. K., White, J. N., & Ciccarelli, S. K. (2012). Psychology. Boston, Mass: Pearson
Learning Solutions.
Ghaderi, f., & Bagherzadeh, f., & Aminian Razavi, t., & Gholam Alizadeh, R. (2006). The
Study of the effect of Bilateral Transfer between performed versus non-performed hand in
basketball dribbling in female students of Tehran University. Harakat, -(26), 139-150.
Nolen-Hoeksema.S., Fredrickson.B.L., Loftus.G.R., Wagenaar.W.A., (2009) Atkinson &
Hilgard’s introduction to psychology (15th ed.), Chapter 7 (pp.237-239), Wadsworth
Cengage Learning.
Schweiger, D., Stone, R. & Genschel, U. Nondominant hand computer mouse training and
the bilateral transfer effect to the dominant hand. Sci Rep 11, 4211 (2021).
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