A third way in which analytic thinking is central is in promoting transfer. When children are actively engaged in understanding why things work the way they do, transfer follows naturally and without great effort. In contrast, when understanding stays close to the surface, and does not penetrate underneath, transfer is unlikely (Brown, 1997). The problem is that such passive learners lack ways of distinguishing the core information from the incidental details. Thus, encouraging learners to more often reason analytically will also create learners who transfer what they learn to new situations.