In the discussion of transfer because of identity, it was emphasised that the presence of identity of various types explained cases of transfer that exist and made transfer possible.  In no case must it be understood, however, that the presence of these identical elements is a warrant of transfer.  Transfer may take place under such conditions, but it need not do so.  Transfer is most sure to occur in cases of identity of substance and least likely in cases of identity of attitude or ideals.  To have useful responses to six, above, city, quart, and so on, in one situation will very likely mean responses of a useful nature in almost all situations which have such elements present.  It is very different with the ideals.  A child may be very accurate in handwork, and yet almost nothing of it show elsewhere; he may be truthful to his teacher and lie to his parents; he may be generous to his classmates and the reverse to his brothers and sisters.  Persistence in Latin may not influence his work in the shop, and the critical attitude of geometry be lacking in his science.  Transfer in methods holds a middle ground.  It seems that the more complex and the more subtle the connections involved, the less is the amount and the surety of the transfer.

In order to increase the probability of transfer when connections of method or attitudes are being formed, first, it should be made conscious, and second, it should be put into practice in several types of situations.  There is grave danger that the method will not be differentiated from the subject, the ideal from the context of the situation.  To many children learning how to study in connection with history, or to be critical in geometry, or to be scientific in the laboratory, has never been separated from the particular situation.  The method or the ideal and the situation in which they have been acquired are one—­one response.  The general elements of method or attitude have never been made conscious, they are submerged in the particular subject or situation, and therefore the probability of transfer is lessened.  If, on the other hand, the question of method, as an idea by itself, apart from any particular subject, is brought to the child’s attention; if truth as an ideal, independent of context, is made conscious, it is much more likely to be reacted to in a different situation, for it has become a free idea and therefore crystallized.  Then having freed the general somewhat from its particular setting, the learner should be given opportunity to put it in practice in other settings.  To simply form the method connections or the attitude responses in Latin and then blindly trust that they will be of general use is unsafe.  It is the business of the educator to make as sure as he can of the transfer, and that can only be done by practicing in several fields.  These two procedures which make transfer more sure, i.e., making the element conscious and giving practice in several fields, are not sharply divided, but interact.  Practice makes the idea clearer and freer, and this in turn makes fresh practice profitable.  It is simply the application of the law of analysis by varying concomitants.