Transforming a Selection

I've been following a couple of books on how to transform a selection. I've gotten as far as placing the bounding box and then resizing the selection but when I hit 'enter', the original object is just as it was, and the 'new object' is a resized marching ant shaped object (that you can see right through). I've followed the instructions in two different books (several times!) and the exact same thing happens. Any idea why this is happening? Can anyone tell me how to successfully resize a selection?

You're learning how to transform the selection itself. To transform the pixels bounded by the selection, go to edit > transform or ctrl-t for free transform.

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You're learning how to transform the selection itself. To transform the pixels bounded by the selection, go to edit > transform or ctrl-t for free transform.

To transform just the selection marque go to select in the menu an choose transform selection this will transform just the selection marquee and not the area under the selection.