Edward Thorndike
Edward Lee Thorndike (August 31, 1874 - August 9, 1949) was a pioneering American psychologist based at Teachers College, Columbia University for most of his career. His groundbreaking work in comparative psychology and the learning process laid the foundation for connectionism, a theory that significantly influenced educational psychology.
Thorndike was a pioneer not only in behaviorism and in studying learning, but also in using animals in clinical experiments.
Beyond academia, Thorndike applied his research to practical industrial challenges, such as developing employee exams and testing methods. Thorndike's influence extended beyond research and teaching roles; he served on the board of the Psychological Corporation and was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1912. Ranked as the ninth-most cited psychologist of the 20th century in a Review of General Psychology survey (2002), Thorndike's impact on reinforcement theory and behavior analysis remains profound.
Thorndike's legacy is further exemplified by his renowned puzzle box experiments with cats, which directly led to the development of the law of effect and his enduring reputation as a pioneer in modern educational psychology.
Connectionism
Thorndike pioneered the use of animals in experimental psychology, particularly in studying learning processes through his puzzle box experiments. His doctoral dissertation, "Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals," was groundbreaking for being the first to use nonhumans as subjects in psychology. Thorndike designed puzzle boxes where animals, primarily cats, learned to escape by pulling levers or pressing buttons to release a door and receive a reward. His meticulous recordings of escape times led to the development of learning curves, which illustrated how animals progressively improved their escape efficiency through trial and error rather than sudden insight. Thorndike's findings challenged prevailing beliefs about animal intelligence, emphasizing systematic learning over innate abilities like insight.
Thorndike's Contributions to Psychology
Thorndike contributed significantly to applied psychology during World War I by developing the Army Beta test, which assessed recruits who were illiterate, unschooled, or non-English speaking. He advocated for education that focused on achieving specific, socially beneficial goals. Thorndike also proposed that the ability to learn typically remains stable until around age 35, declining thereafter at a rate of approximately 1 percent per year. Additionally, he formulated the law of effect, which asserts that behaviors followed by positive outcomes are more likely to be repeated.
Thorndike categorized intellectual development into three main areas: abstract intelligence, involving the processing and understanding of concepts; mechanical intelligence, concerning the manipulation of physical objects; and social intelligence, which relates to interpersonal interactions.
Thorndike's views of learning:
Learning is a gradual process.
Learning occurs spontaneously.
All animals learn in a similar manner.
Law of effect: Associations followed by satisfying outcomes are reinforced, while those followed by annoying outcomes are weakened.
Thorndike's law of exercise includes:
Law of use: Associations strengthen with increased use.
Law of disuse: Associations weaken with disuse.
Law of recency: Most recent responses are most likely to recur.
Multiple response: Problem-solving through trial and error, where animals attempt various responses until achieving the desired outcome.
Set or attitude: Animals exhibit predispositions towards specific actions.
Prepotency of elements: Ability to focus on relevant aspects of a problem and disregard irrelevant ones.
Response by analogy: Applying responses from similar contexts to new situations.
Identical elements theory of transfer: Transfer of learning between situations depends on their similarity.
Associative shifting: Ability to shift a response from one stimulus to another.
Law of readiness: Readiness to act based on the strength and readiness of responses.
Identifiability: Recognition and understanding of situations, leading to learning.
Availability: Ease of producing a specific response, influencing learning efficiency.
criticism
Thorndike's law of effect and puzzle box methodology faced significant criticism from behaviorists and other psychologists. Critics mainly targeted four aspects of the theory: the implied retroactive nature of the effect, its philosophical implications, the identification of effective learning conditions, and its overall utility.
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