Transfer of learning is the study of how human performance and learning in one context can affect performance and learning in another context. The concept was originally introduced by Thorndike and Woodworth to examine how skills transfer between similar tasks. Their identical elements theory proposed that transfer depends on the similarities between the original learning task and the new transfer task. Transfer research has since examined the effects of prior experience on new learning and performance, distinguishing between positive transfer, where prior learning aids new learning, and negative transfer, where prior learning interferes with new learning.