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This research examines the effects of the nature of the transfer task on the performance of learners who studied first aid by distance education, and relates this performance to the cognitive structures that are involved. Tasks involving both near- and far-transfer were attempted by learners and the levels of prompting that were needed to perform the procedures involved in each task were measured. Patterns in the levels of prompting for tasks as a whole and for individual procedures are explained in terms of the cognitive structures involved. Findings suggest that the extent to which specific procedures are fully proceduralised in initial instruction is important, not only for near-transfer tasks but also for far-transfer ones. Errors in these procedures appeared to re-emerge even after initial correction, once the far-transfer tasks required controlled processing.