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    Before 1930 1. Law of Readiness - Proposed in His Book Entitled The Original Nature of Man

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    Jess
    Edward Thorndike conducted experiments with cats in puzzle boxes to study learning. He found that behaviors followed by rewarding consequences, like escaping the box to get food, became stronger and were repeated more quickly over time (the Law of Effect). Thorndike's work influenced later psychologists like Skinner and helped establish the principles of operant conditioning, where behaviors are shaped by their consequences. The Law of Effect showed that behaviors reinforced with rewards are more likely to be repeated than those meeting unpleasant outcomes.

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    Before 1930 1. Law of Readiness - Proposed in His Book Entitled The Original Nature of Man

    Uploaded by

    Jess
    152 views7 pages
    Edward Thorndike conducted experiments with cats in puzzle boxes to study learning. He found that behaviors followed by rewarding consequences, like escaping the box to get food, became stronger and were repeated more quickly over time (the Law of Effect). Thorndike's work influenced later psychologists like Skinner and helped establish the principles of operant conditioning, where behaviors are shaped by their consequences. The Law of Effect showed that behaviors reinforced with rewards are more likely to be repeated than those meeting unpleasant outcomes.

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    Edward Thorndike conducted experiments with cats in puzzle boxes to study learning. He found that behaviors followed by rewarding consequences, like escaping the box to get food, became stronger and were repeated more quickly over time (the Law of Effect). Thorndike's work influenced later psychologists like Skinner and helped establish the principles of operant conditioning, where behaviors are shaped by their consequences. The Law of Effect showed that behaviors reinforced with rewards are more likely to be repeated than those meeting unpleasant outcomes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    152 views7 pages

    Before 1930 1. Law of Readiness - Proposed in His Book Entitled The Original Nature of Man

    Uploaded by

    Jess
    Edward Thorndike conducted experiments with cats in puzzle boxes to study learning. He found that behaviors followed by rewarding consequences, like escaping the box to get food, became stronger and were repeated more quickly over time (the Law of Effect). Thorndike's work influenced later psychologists like Skinner and helped establish the principles of operant conditioning, where behaviors are shaped by their consequences. The Law of Effect showed that behaviors reinforced with rewards are more likely to be repeated than those meeting unpleasant outcomes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 7

    Before 1930

    1. Law of Readiness -proposed in his book entitled The Original Nature of


    Man

    Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning, but his work was based
    on Thorndike’s (1898) law of effect. According to this principle, behavior that is followed by
    pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant
    consequences is less likely to be repeated.
    Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of Effect - Reinforcement. Behavior which is
    reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e., strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to
    die out-or be extinguished (i.e., weakened).
    Edward Thorndike (1898) is famous in psychology for his work on learning theory that lead to
    the development of operant conditioning within behaviorism.
    Whereas classical conditioning depends on developing associations between events, operant
    conditioning involves learning from the consequences of our behavior.
    Skinner wasn’t the first psychologist to study learning by consequences.  Indeed, Skinner's
    theory of operant conditioning is built on the ideas of Edward Thorndike.
    Thorndike studied learning in animals (usually cats).  He devised a classic experiment in
    which he used a puzzle box (see fig. 1) to empirically test the laws of learning.

    Fig 1: Simplified graph of the result of the puzzle box experiment.


    He placed a cat in the puzzle box, which was encourage to escape to reach a scrap of fish
    placed outside.  Thorndike would put a cat into the box and time how long it took to escape. 
    The cats experimented with different ways to escape the puzzle box and reach the fish.
    Eventually they would stumble upon the lever which opened the cage.  When it had escaped it
    was put in again, and once more the time it took to escape was noted.  In successive trials the
    cats would learn that pressing the lever would have favorable consequences and they would
    adopt this behavior, becoming increasingly quick at pressing the lever.
    Thorndike (1905) introduced the concept of reinforcement and was the first to apply
    psychological principles to the area of learning.
    His research led to many theories and laws of learning, such as operant conditioning. Skinner
    (1938), like Thorndike, put animals in boxes and observed them to see what they were able to
    learn.
    The learning theories of Thorndike and Pavlov were later synthesized by Hull (1935).
    Thorndike's research drove comparative psychology for fifty years, and influenced countless
    psychologists over that period of time, and even still today.
    https://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html

    Edward Thorndike: The Law of


    Effect
    By Saul McLeod updated 2018

    As you might imagine, this principle had a strong influence on the development of the behavioral school of thought.
    Skinner's operant conditioning process relies on this principle, as behaviors followed by desirable outcomes are
    strengthened while those followed by undesirable outcomes are weakened.

    Connectionism is a learning product of the relationship between stimulus


    and response. That may sound pretty technical, so let's break it down a
    little further. Stimulus is something that causes a reaction, while a response
    is the reaction to a stimulus. Think about what happens when a big piece of
    chocolate cake is place in front of you. The sight and smell of the cake is
    the stimulus, and they are very likely to produce a response in you that
    involves drooling and maybe even a growling stomach. Edward Thorndike is
    the psychologist who first proposed that connectionism is the key to
    learning. He was popular in the first half of the 20th century, and was the
    first education psychologist. That is he was the first person to bring
    together what psychologists had studied about how the human mind works,
    and what educators knew about how to teach. Connectionism was
    Thorndike's main philosophy. He said that learning is about responding to
    stimuli. Believe it or not much of his theory is still used in classrooms today,
    almost a hundred years later. Let's look closer at the first law of
    connectionism, and how it might appear in a classroom. If a student study
    for a Test they look at an A and it will encourage them to study for tests in
    the future. Whereas if the student does not study for a test they will fail and
    will hopefully learn from their mistake and getting study next time. Getting
    an A on a test is much more effective than failing because it has a positive
    our teachers should use a positive reward to encourage good behavior and
    good study skills from their students. Positive rewards come in all shapes
    and forms. It can be as small as a candy or it could be a call home to tell
    how well their child is doing in class. It is important to take time to learn
    about your srudent to see what form of reward they respond best. It is also
    important to use repetition and teaching. Thorndike repeatedly put the cat
    inside the box and each time the cat got faster and faster at finding the way
    out of the box. Think back at third grade when you were learning your
    multiplication tables each week you had a time test on a certain times table
    and the more you practice the faster you got. I'm sure if you were asked
    what 9 times 8 is you would be able to tell me 72, because you had been
    conditioned to immediately say the product of any common multiplication
    problem. This is an example of operant conditioning which eventually led to
    Pavlov's Classical Conditioning theory. Thorndike thought that punishments
    were not as effective as positive rewards. This is growing more and more
    common in today's tutu style. Experts say that for every bad behavior you
    correct you should have reward three good behaviors. If a child is
    constantly being told that they are doing something wrong they will soon
    believe that they can never do anything right. Instead of constantly feeding
    on to a student for bad behavior, you should encourage the good behaviors
    they are doing. While punishments are important they should not be the
    main focus in your classroom. Students need a positive environment to
    learn and grow. Many criticized Thorndike's Law of Effects because it only
    looks at the physical response to the problem. Thorndike cannot ask his
    subjects their mental proces and find our the reasoning behind their
    behavior. This is a problem working with animals as subjects. You cannot
    ask the cat what changed for them that allowed them to get out of the box
    faster than the time before he focused on the reaction to the stimulus.
    Many say this leaves the gap in this understanding --- the response to
    stimulus and while reinforcements are a big part of his theory. He
    personally

    The Law of Effect in Psychology

    The law of effect principle developed by Edward Thorndike suggested that


    responses closely followed by satisfaction will become firmly attached to the
    situation and, therefore, more likely to reoccur when the situation is
    repeated. Conversely, if the situation is followed by discomfort, the
    connections to the situation will become weaker, and the behavior of
    response is less likely to occur when the situation is repeated.

    Imagine that you arrive early to work one day by accident. Your boss
    notices and praises your diligence. The praise makes you feel good, so it
    reinforces the behavior. You start showing up for work a little bit early each
    day to keep receiving your boss’s commendations. Because a pleasing
    consequence followed the behavior, the action became more likely to be
    repeated in the future.

    If I asked you the question, 'What is the best way to predict the likelihood
    that an organism will repeatedly engage in a specific behavior?' what would
    you say? The answer has to do with what follows the behavior. Did
    engaging in that behavior result in something pleasant or unpleasant? If
    you enjoy making money, then you are likely to get up every morning and
    go to work. If you like getting good grades in your history class, then you
    will read the text and complete the assignments. If you don't like getting
    grounded by your parents, then you will stop missing your curfew. Sounds
    pretty basic, and for the most part, it is, but it wasn't until around 100 years
    ago or so that psychologists started to understand the science behind the
    interaction between behavior and environmental influences
    Thorndike studied learning in animals (usually cats). He devised a classic
    experiment in which he used a puzzle box (see fig. 1) to empirically test the
    laws of learning.

    Fig 1: Simplified graph of the result of the puzzle box experiment.

    He placed a cat in the puzzle box, which was encourage to escape to reach
    a scrap of fish placed outside. Thorndike would put a cat into the box and
    time how long it took to escape. The cats experimented with different ways
    to escape the puzzle box and reach the fish.

    Eventually they would stumble upon the lever which opened the cage.
    When it had escaped it was put in again, and once more the time it took to
    escape was noted. In successive trials the cats would learn that pressing
    the lever would have favorable consequences and they would adopt this
    behavior, becoming increasingly quick at pressing the lever.

    Edward Thorndike put forward a “Law of effect” which stated that any
    behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated,
    and any behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be
    stopped.
    https://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
    SIMPLY PSYCHOLOGY
    http://dgwaymade.blogspot.com/2010/10/thorndikes-laws-of-learning-and-
    its.html?m=1
    Thorndike's laws of learning and its educational implications

    Thorndike’s Laws ofLearning:

    1) Law of Readiness:-

    First primary law of learning, according to him, is the ‘Law of Readiness’ or


    the ‘Law of Action Tendency’, which means that learning takes place when
    an action tendency is aroused through preparatory adjustment, set or
    attitude. Readiness means a preparation of action. If one is not prepared to
    learn, learning cannot be automatically instilled in him, for example, unless
    the typist, in order to learn typing prepares himself to start, he would not
    make much progress in a lethargic & unprepared manner.

    2) Law of Exercise:-

    The second law of learning is the ‘Law of Exercise’, which means that drill
    or practice helps in increasing efficiency and durability of learning and
    according to Throndike’s S-R Bond Theory, the connections are
    strengthened with trail or practice and the connections are weakened when
    trial or practice is discontinued. The ‘law of exercise’, therefore, is also
    understood as the ‘law of use and disuse’ in which case connections or
    bonds made in the brain cortex are weakened or loosened. Many examples
    of this case are found in case of human learning. Learning to drive a motor-
    car, typewriting, singing or memorizing a poem or a mathematical table,
    and music etc. need exercise and repetition of various movements and
    actions many times.

    3) Law of Effect:-

    The third law is the ‘Law of Effect’, according to which the trial or steps
    leading to satisfaction stamps in the bond or connection. Satisfying states
    lead to consolidation and strengthening of the connection, whereas dis-
    satisfaction, annoyance or pain lead to the weakening or stamping out of
    the connection. In fact, the ‘law of effect’ signifies that if the response
    satisfy the subject, they are learnt and selected, while those which are not
    satisfying are eliminated. Teaching, therefore, must be pleasing. The
    educator must obey the tastes and interests of his pupils. In other words,
    greater the satisfaction stronger will be the motive to learn. Thus, intensity
    is an important condition of ‘law of effect’. Example: If a hungry rat receives
    a food pellet after turning in a circle, he or she is more likely to turn in a
    circle again Learning is incremental rather than insightful

    Edward Thorndike - Law of Effect | Simply Psychology

    Edward Thorndike (1898) is famous in psychology for his work on learning


    theory that lead to the development of operant conditioning within
    behaviorism.

    simplypsychology.org

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