Introduction on Edward Thorndike

Edward L. Thorndike was born and raised in Massachusetts. He graduated from

Wesleyan University in 1895, and received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia
University in 1898. He attended Harvard briefly before Columbia, largely due to the
fact that he wished to study under the Psychologist William James. According to the
Encyclopedia of World Biography, James let Thorndike perform learning
experiments with animals in his own basement. Thorndike continued these
experiments at Columbia University and published his results as Animal Intelligence
(1898), his doctoral thesis (http://www.bookrags.com/biography/edward-leethorndike/). However, he switched from experimenting with chicks at Harvard to
using cats and dogs at Columbia.
During his lifetime, Thorndike published several books on modern day educational
psychology. Among his works are: Educational Psychology (1903), Animal
Intelligence (1911), The Measurement of Intelligence (1926), and Human Nature
and the Social Order (1940). Edward L. Thorndike died in August in 1949, and he is
perhaps known best for his early work with animals and the subsequent law of
effect.

Theory
In 1989, Edward Thorndike introduced a theory of learning in his doctoral dissertation that
emphasized the role of experience in the strengthening and weakening of stimulus response
connections. Thorndike named this perspective connectionism. This classic experiment, on
which his dissertation is based, involved cats placed in a puzzle box with a door that opened
when a certain device (wire loop) was appropriately manipulated. He then observed the cat in its
attempts to get out of the box. Eventually, the cat triggered the mechanism that opened the door
and allowed escape. Thorndike returned the cat to the box a second time, and the cat again
engaged in trial-n-error attempts; however the cat escaped in less time than previously.
Thorndike continued to place the cat in the box, and although the cat continued to demonstrate
seemingly random behavior, it escaped within shorter and shorter time periods. (Ormrod)
Thorndike concluded from his observations that the learning of a response to a stimulus (working
the wire loop) is affected by the consequence of that behavior (escape).
Simply put, Thorndikes original law of effect is as follows:
Responses to a situation that are followed by satisfaction are strengthened; responses that are
followed by discomfort are weakened (Ormrod, p.50).

This summary implies that reward and punishment have

opposite but equal effects on behavior. However,

Thorndikes later research indicated that punishment

may not be as effective in weakening responses (Ormrod).

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Relate Thorndike's Law of Effect to the principles of operant conditioning.

KEY POINTS

The Law of Effect states that responses that produce a satisfying effect in a
particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and
responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in
that situation.

Thorndike is the psychologist who first studied the Law of Effect by placing hungry
cats inside puzzle boxes and observing their actions. He quickly realized that cats
could learn the efficacy of certain behaviors and would repeat those behaviors that
allowed them to escape faster.

The Law of Effect is at work in every human behavior as well. From a young age, we
learn which actions are beneficial and which are detrimental through a similar trial
and error process.

While the Law of Effect explains the behavior from an external, observable point of
view, it does not account for internal, unobservable processes that also affect the
behavior patterns of human beings.

TERMS

1. behavior modification

Altering behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative

reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the extinction of maladaptive behavior
through positive and negative punishment

2. trial and error

The process of finding a solution to a problem by trying many possible solutions and
learning from mistakes until a way is found.

3. Law of Effect
A law developed by Edward L. Thorndike that states "responses that
produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to
occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting
effect become less likely to occur again in that situation."
FULL TEXT

The psychological principle of the Law of Effect was first published in a thesis
written by Edward L. Thorndike in 1905. After several experiments on animals and
learning development, Thorndike posited that learning was actually merely a
change in behavior as a result of a consequence. Furthermore, if an action brought a
reward, it was stamped into the mind and available for recall later. These two
suppositions together came to be known as the Law of Effect, and now inform much
of what we know about operant conditioning and behaviorism.
Law of Effect
Initially, cats displayed a variety of behaviors inside the box. Over successive trials,
actions that were helpful in escaping the box and receiving the food reward were
replicated and repeated at a higher rate.
Thorndike and His Experiments

Thorndike completed his most famous experiments using cats and puzzle boxes . He
placed hungry cats into home-made puzzle boxes and recorded the time it took for
the cat to perform the necessary actions to escape and receive their food reward.
He found that successful actions appeared first by chance, and that the cats learned
from an intricate trial and error process which actions should be continued, and
which actions should be surrendered. A well-practiced cat could quickly remember
and reuse actions that were successful in escaping to the food reward. After

successive trials, the amount of time it took the cat to escape from the puzzle box
dropped dramatically, and ineffective or inefficient actions were decreased
significantly as well . Thorndike used these findings to develop the Law of Effect by
stating that the development of new actions was simply a reaction to consequences
of a behavior.
Thorndike's Puzzle Box
An example of Thorndike's puzzle box alongside a graph demonstrating the learning
of a cat within the box.
The Law of Effect and Its Uses

The Law of Effect is a basic tenant of operant conditioning within behaviorism, the
segment of learning theory based solely on observable behaviors. Thorndike used it
to answer the question of how a new skill is learned - behavior modified by
consequences. It states that a pleasing effect or consequence will strengthen the
action or behavior that produced it. The opposite is also said to be true of
displeasing effects. This is a basic stimulus-response relationship that can be
learned by the operant person or animal. Once the association is established, the
response is reinforced, and the association holds the sole responsibility for the
occurrence of that behavior. In the case of the cats and puzzle boxes, a cat would
exhibit a behavior such as opening a latch, or pulling a string, for no other reason
than it was thought to aid in the escape of the box, and the receipt of a food reward.

The Law of Effect has since been expanded to human action and behavior
modification. The idea that responses to a situation which are followed by a
rewarding state of affairs will be strengthened and become habitual, was easily
translated into the world of human begins. It must be noted that this is a theory of
connectionism, so it does not include any reference to unobservable, or internal,
states. Instead, it relies solely on what can be observed in human behavior, and
places responsibility on those stimulus-response relationships for learning. While
this theory does not account for the entirety of human understanding, because it
does not take into account internal states, it has been applied to nearly every sector
of human life, with its main focuses in education and psychology.

Source: Boundless. Thorndike's Law of Effect. Boundless Psychology. Boundless,

14 Nov. 2014. Retrieved 30 Jan. 2015 from
https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychologytextbook/learning-7/operant-conditioning-47/thorndike-s-law-of-effect-196-12731/