Evidence library

The Learning Transfer Constellation

Fifty-one factors the research links to whether training changes behaviour on the job.

How to read this. Every factor here is drawn from published transfer research and carries its source. Factors are not independent, and several are subscales of the same instrument or study. Read this as a map of what has been studied, not as fifty-one independent controls. Larger nodes are the factors where a meta-analysis reports a stronger relationship; hollow nodes are factors no meta-analysis has sized.
Drag to rotate. Click any node.
Inside the training room 10Around the training 41

This constellation is a sample drawn from the published research on learning transfer. It does not capture every influence on whether training transfers, and most of what it shows are associations rather than proven causes.

Browse all 51 factors as a list

Pick a factor

Click any node on the sphere, or search above. Each factor opens with a definition, what the evidence actually says, its sources, and the other factors it connects to.

The sphere is a map, not a ranking. Blume and colleagues point to trainee motivation, the work environment and more proactive selection into training as the most promising practical avenues, rather than any single fix.

Principal sources

Baldwin & Ford (1988), Personnel Psychology, 41 · Holton, Bates & Ruona (2000), HRDQ, 11(4) · Burke & Hutchins (2007), HRD Review, 6 · Blume, Ford, Baldwin & Huang (2010), Journal of Management, 36(4) · Grossman & Salas (2011), IJTD, 15(2) · Choi & Ruona (2008), An Update on the Learning Transfer System, AHRD, plus the primary studies cited on individual factors.

Which of these are you already getting right?

Seventeen questions, scored against the factors on this map. You get a Transfer Readiness Score and a plain-English read on what is at risk.