EDWARD L.

THORNDIKE’S
CONNECTIONISM
THEORY 1874-1949
PREPARED BY :
KAMLESHWARY KRISHNASAMY
MOVINA ANBUMANIAM
PRIYADHAARSHINI MAGENDRAN
PRIYANKA GUNASEKARAN
BIOGRAPHY
Edward Lee Thorndike, is an American pioneer in
comparative psychology, was born in Lowell,
Massachusetts in 1874 to the family of a Methodist
minister.
He became interested in the field of psychology after
reading William James' "Principles of Psychology"
and after graduating from Wesleyan University, he
enrolled at Harvard in order to study under
James(1895–1897).
 THORNDIKE’S
CONNECTIONISM THEORY
• The learning theory of Thorndike represents the original SR framework
of behavioral psychology: Learning is the
result of associations forming between stimuli and
responses.
• Such associations or "habits" become
strengthened or weakened by the nature and frequency of
the S-R pairings.
• The paradigm for S-R theory was trial and
error learning in which certain responses come to dominate
others due to rewards.
• The hallmark of connectionism (like
all behavioral theory) was that learning could be adequately
explained without referring to any unobservable internal
states.
THREE LAWS OF
LEARNING:

LAW OF READINESS
LAW OF EXERCISE
LAW OF EFFECT
 LAW OF READINESS
 First primary law of learning, according to him, is the
‘Law of Readiness’ 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.