Edward Thorndike was an American psychologist and a behaviorist known for proposing the Edward Thorndike Law of effect. Through Thorndike?s law, Thorndike claimed that humans behave in a particular way as a result of their vulnerability to a complicated set of stimuli. Further, human entities develop bonds between a stimulus and response. Accordingly, such a bond becomes stronger if the stimulus leads to a response that results in the human entity?s satisfaction.?
Edward Thorndike Law of Effect
Edward
Thorndike was an American psychologist and a behaviorist known for proposing the Edward Thorndike Law of effect. Through Thorndike?s law, Thorndike claimed that humans behave in a particular way as a result of their vulnerability to a complicated set of stimuli. Further, human entities develop bonds between a stimulus and response.
Accordingly, such a bond becomes stronger if the stimulus leads to a response that results in the human entity?s satisfaction.?
However,
such a connection becomes weaker if the stimulus leads to a response that results in unsatisfactory outcomes for the human entity.?
Thorndike
was of the view that humans and animals develop such connections eventually, out of their experiences. Thus, this law can be explained empirically in the following way.?
Say a
situation ?S? compels the human entity to make a number of responses. However, the human entity chooses the response ?R? as it results in satisfactory outcomes (SR) for the entity.
Thus, the
satisfaction SR creates a connection between S and R. And due to this connection, the response R is bound to occur when a situation similar to the situation S will arise. Accordingly, a situation leads to a number of responses that are followed by satisfiers called reinforcers. Further, these reinforcers are responsible for an increase in the probability of occurrence of a response to a given situation in the future.?
Thus,
Edward Thorndike?s Law of Effect became his primary law. Apart from the law of effect, he contributed a number of secondary laws. These include the law of trial and error, law of readiness, law of availability, effect and practice laws, etc.?
Biography of Edward Thorndike
Thorndike?s full name is Edward Lee Thorndike who was a famous American psychologist and behaviorist who made an important contribution towards reinforcement theory and behavior analysis.
In fact, his contribution towards the reinforcement theory laid the grounds for the famous law of effect. Apart from proposing this law, Thorndike generated a number of works. These include:
- Thorndike?s law of learning
- Edward Thorndike?s law of connectionism
- Thorndike?s theory of intelligence
Besides this, Thorndike had a lengthy career of over 50 years and has over 500 titles to his name.
Thorndike was born on August 31, 1874, in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, USA. He started going to school when he was 5 years old. But, he learned to read at home. Further, he attended high school at Lowell, Boston, and Providence and was out of the few privileged to attend a secondary school. Not only this, unlike others he wanted to go for higher education and thus attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Thorndike is known for his theory of learning which included both the primary law of effect and many secondary laws.
However, despite these important contributions, Thorndike?s work was criticized on numerous grounds.
- For instance, his theory of trial and error was rejected on the ground that it applied to limited types of problem-solving
- Also, the cats used in his experiment did not always find a solution to the problem through hit and try
- Further, it was also said that unlike what Thorndike suggested, learning could also take place without any effect
Thorndike?s Contribution to Psychology
Edward Thorndike made a number of contributions to human psychology. These were as follows:
1. Experiments on Animals
Thorndike conducted experiments on animals like cats, dogs, and chicks and came out with ?Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals.?
2. Opened an Educational Clinic
Thorndike, together with Virgil Prettyman, in 1902 opened an educational clinic so as to render special educational and psychological services.
3. Introduced Handwriting Scale
Thorndike came up with a handwriting scale in 1910 which initiated the scientific movement in the field of education
4. Law of Trial and Error
Through his experiment in which he put the cats in a puzzle box, Thorndike came up with the trial and error theory. This theory states that human entities undertake a number of responses before selecting the one that results in satisfactory affairs.
5. Educational Psychology
Thorndike published a three-volume series of education. In this series, he suggested that one?s interest boosts the satisfaction levels of every success. Likewise, he also provided a summary of his law of learning.
6. Interest in Learning
Thorndike published ?Adult Interests? in which emphasized the manner in which a teacher should guide the student so that they respond. He suggested five strategies to increase the interest of children. These include suggestion, continuity, conditioning, imitation, and selection by rewards and punishments.
7. Reading
Thorndike made some important contributions in respect of reading. To begin with, he published ?Reading as Reasoning: A Study of Mistake in Paragraph Reading. Through this study, he proposed that reading is not merely understanding what is written on a page, In fact, it?s a cognitive ability that requires collaboration between various forces to come up with a final response.
However, such a connection becomes weaker if the stimulus leads to a response that results in unsatisfactory outcomes for the human entity.
Thorndike was of the view that humans and animals develop such connections eventually, out of their experiences. Thus, this law can be explained empirically in the following way.
Say a situation ?S? compels the human entity to make a number of responses. However, the human entity chooses the response ?R? as it results in satisfactory outcomes (SR) for the entity.
Thus, the satisfaction SR creates a connection between S and R. And due to this connection, the response R is bound to occur when a situation similar to the situation S will arise. Accordingly, a situation leads to a number of responses that are followed by satisfiers called reinforcers. Further, these reinforcers are responsible for an increase in the probability of occurrence of a response to a given situation in the future.
Thus, Edward Thorndike?s Law of Effect became his primary law. Apart from the law of effect, he contributed a number of secondary laws. These include the law of trial and error, law of readiness, law of availability, effect and practice laws, etc.
