Edward Thorndike's Theory: The Connectionism Theory Of Learning

The Connectionism Theory of Learning was introduced by a prominent psychologist, Edward Thorndike. His theory was based on creating stimuli that would generate responses, and called these bonds the stimuli-response connections. Thorndike wanted to apply his laws to mathematics and other fields for humans, but he began with his puzzle-box studies. Around 1900, he conducted a series of experiments where he placed a hungry cat in puzzle box with food outside the cage. The cage could be opened by a string located somewhere inside the cage. The cat would first attempt to squeeze or claw its way out, generally striking every side of the cage. Eventually, the cat would free itself. When the cat was placed in the cage once again it would react similar …show more content…
This law, like the Law of Readiness, is based on the emotions and feelings of the learner. It states that an S-R bond grows stronger if the connection results in satisfaction and a pleasant state and conversely, the S-R bond is weakened if the connections results in frustration or anger. Simply put, it means that rewards encourage learning and punishments discourage it. Initially, he stated that it was not necessary that negative effects would weaken bonds and vice versa. An example of this law can be seen in the classroom: if a teacher rewards a student when they do something right, and punishes a student when they do something wrong, the student is more likely to avoid doing wrong things as they cause discomfort and will attempt to do right things more as they result in pleasure. Thorndike later arrived to the conclusion that positive effects promoted learning far more than negative effects discouraged learning. However, his evidence for his claim was weak as it was based on symbolic reward and punishment where he would only say the word ‘right’ as a reward and the word ‘wrong’ as a punishment. If he had given stronger rewards or punishments, such as a sweet as a reward or a mild electric shock as punishment, the outcome would somewhat differ from his …show more content…
One of these is the Multiple Responses law, which states that a learner may respond in a variety of ways if their initial response is unsuccessful. An example of this is also seen in Thorndike’s puzzle box studies: the trapped cat may at first attempt to squeeze through the puzzle cage but after being unsuccessful it will try to claw its way out. The cat will try various methods until it is successful. Another important concept to his theory was the attitude of the learner- certain individuals will react a certain way. This is best seen when a hungry chick and another much less hungrier and more tired chick are place in a cage each. The less hungry and sleepier chick will be far less inclined to escape than the other, and there will be less urgency in its attempts. Another aspect to Thorndike’s theory is the prepotency of elements in a situation. Certain aspects of a situation become more important to generating a response and irrelevant details are filtered out. An example of this is when a cat has learned to get out of a dozen trap boxes by pulling a string or turning a bar et cetera. This cat, when placed in another box, will filter out other details and start searching for small objects on the side of the box. This example also explains the Law of Assimilation. An individual begins applying the reactions from one situation to