Toward a Computational Model of Transfer

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) explored the application of transfer -- a notion well studied in psychology -- to machine learning. This article discusses the formal measure of transfer and how it evolved. We discuss lessons learned, progress made at the formal and algorithmic levels, and thoughts about current and future prospects for the practical application of this technology. The aims of TLP were to understand and formally frame how this intuitively compelling psychological idea might apply in the computational context, build computational models of transfer learning (TL), and explore how these models might apply to practical learning tasks. TLP and the field as a whole made great strides in each of these dimensions.