Connectionism
Phrase coined by Edward Thorndike to describe his behaviorist studies in 1900.
Thorndike and Robert Woodward attempted to show the limitations of transfer of training.
For example, they found that practicing estimating the sizes of rectangles did not improve one’s ability to estimate the sizes of triangles.
However, Thorndike did not say that transfer of training was impossible “but only that transfer cannot be assumed to occur, that it is rarely automatics, and that direct teaching for desired outcomes is usually more efficient and economical than are hoped-for, spill-over effects”