The Locus of Bimanual Skill Transfer

Subjects (N = 128) practiced a typing task with one hand while the other hand either grasped the table leg (experimental condition) or was free (control condition). Subsequently, the other hand showed savings in training in the control but not in the experimental condition. The abolition of transfer of training by engaging the fingers of the test hand in unrelated activity during training suggests that transfer is mediated by irradiation of the emerging motor program from the control center of the training limb to that of the test limb during and not after acquisition.