Edward Thorndike

In 1898 Edward Thorndike test his own laws of learning, he made an experiment he put a cat in a puzzle box and he put a piece of fish outside the box to motivate the cat to escape from the puzzle box and he observe how long the cat took to escape from the puzzle box and go to the piece of the fish. And by repeating the experiment Edward Thorndike note that the time decrease which shows that the cat learns and applies the trial…

theories fell under the umbrella of field theories, which proposed that learning was a response to a variety of circumstances making up the “field” in which one is operating. The transition from the elemental model to holistic model was signified by Edward Tolman, who developed a system which was still behavioristic, but not so focused on physiological responses to stimuli (Tolman, 1948). His concept of “goal-oriented” learning helped introduce a framework where organisms are engaging in…

operant conditioning is a voluntary behavior. In 1905, Edward L. Thorndike conducted an experiment where he placed a hungry cat inside a “puzzle box”, and a food dish on the outside. The cat upon pressing a lever could free itself from the box and quell its hunger. Initially when the cat was placed in the box, it would push and rub against the walls of the box in an attempt to escape, before accidentally stepping on the release. Each time Thorndike conducted the experiment, the cat…

learning can be used to change the behaviour of pets, children, and adults. According to Huitt and Hummel, the theorists of operant conditioning are Edward Thorndike, John Watson, and B. F. Skinner. They proposed that learning is the result of the application of consequences; that is, learners begin to connect certain responses to certain stimuli. Thorndike labelled this type of learning instrumental by using consequences. Skinner renamed instrumental as operant because it is more descriptive…

One of the earliest contributors to psychology is the ancient Greek Philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E), who in his book, “Peri Psyches” (translates as, ‘About the Psyche’) argues that human behaviour, like the movements of stars and seas, is subject to rules and laws. Among many other related things, Aristotle also declared that people are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain. This view remains as current today as it was in ancient Greece. Behavioural Psychology is a branch of…

"The Astonishing Range of This Thing Called Learning" Is learnings subjected to any form of information and memorizing it? Extensive research states that learning is subjected to any-form of information and therefore memorizing the information. These pioneers in learning explore and study in areas such as reflex response; finding that it is involuntary, and is not chosen, or in ones control. And, classical conditioning; one is learning to make an involuntary response to a stimulus (not what…

he was looking for include intellection, leadership, and responsibility. Thorndike found in his results that if one of the soldier’s qualities was highly rated, the other qualities were also rated highly, and vice versa. For example, if a soldier was rated as intelligent he was also rated to be neat and a good leader, while a soldier rated as irresponsible also tended to get low ratings on physique and energy. “Thorndike concluded that the correlations were too high and too even to be a…

Columbia University. During his time in school at Columbia, Thorndike began working on “puzzle boxes”. His original subjects were chicks, but he eventually switched to cats and dogs. In his study, he would place animals into the maze boxes and they could only escape if they made a specific response. By doing this, its was hoped that they would learn this specific response. This type of reinforcement is called instrumental conditioning. What Thorndike found in this experiment is that when he…

It has been discovered that we as humans, learn from the development of animals. Children and animals are the pathway of knowledge that leads to the critical understandings of how learning is developed and shaped. Bringing together personal and environmental experiences to modify and enrich our behaviors and world views. Throughout this paper, I will discuss important points of learning theories pulled from the Elemental and Holistic models and explain in details the significance of those…

Learning can be defined as; “The relatively permanent change in a person’s knowledge or behaviour due to experience” (Mayer, 1982, p.1040). New theories of learning are leading to very different approaches to the design of curriculum, teaching, and assessment. Theorist B.F. Skinner adopted and developed the scientific philosophy known as radical behaviourism. He distinguished two kinds of behaviour; respondent behaviour which is elicited by a known stimulus and operant behaviour which is not…