The Edward Thorndike effect law

Edward Thorndike (1874 - 1949) was a famous psychologist recognized for his work in the theory of learning that led to the development of operating conditioning in behaviorism.

Classic conditioning and operant conditioning

While classical conditioning depends on the generation of associations between events, operating conditioning implies learning from the consequences of our behavior. Skinner was not the first psychologist to study learning by consequences. In fact, Skinner's operating conditioning theory is based on Edward Thorndike's ideas.

Thorndike's experiment: the box-problem

At the end of the 19th century Thorndike studied learning in animals (usually cats). He devised an experiment in which he used a box for him created by him, to empirically test the laws of learning.

In 1889, Thorndike made the first experimental demonstration of instrumental conditioning with animals. This author initiated his studies with the intention of demonstrating that animals did not use reasoning to solve certain situations (opinion that was not shared by researchers from his time) but, in a simpler way, found the solution thanks to a Answer learning. Thorndike began studying the animal learning process using chicks that placed in labyrinths built with books, but the most systematic experimental studies carried out them with the call box-problem designed by himself.

These were wooden boxes inside which I generally placed a hungry outside food in sight. Inside the box, the animal was with different mechanisms such as levers, ropes or baldas that, being properly operated, allowed the opening of the box. Thorndike registered latency, that is, the time it took the cat to make the correct answer and closed the animal again inside the box. This researcher observed that the duration of latency gradually decreased throughout successive trials; Thus, if on the first time the animal was in the box it took almost ten minutes to open the door, in the forty trial could solve in less than two minutes.

Thorndike interpreted this gradual decrease in latencies as an essay and error learning in which reasoning did not participate, since the time curve used did not fall drastically once the animal found the correct answer. Thus, in learning and error learning, the caged animal made a series of typical responses of its species among which one of them, by chance, gave rise to the opening of the door; The satisfactory consequences of this response (being able to access food) would gradually strengthen a hypothetical association between the interior stimulus of the box-problem and the correct answer.

The effect law

This is how Thorndike proposed the theory that Animals learn by trial and error. When something works satisfactorily, the animal establishes a connection or association between behavior and positive result. This association constitutes the basis for subsequent behavior. But when the animal makes an error or the result it obtains is negative, this association between behavior and the result is not formed, so the ineffective behavior is less likely to be repeated.

This associative learning between the stimulus and the response configures the base of The Law of the effect made by Thorndike in 1911, which establishes the following:

If an executed response in the presence of a stimulus is followed by a satisfactory fact, the association between the stimulus and the answer is strengthened. If the answer is followed by an annoying fact, the association weakens.

Initially established parallels among positive results, which are called reinforcement in behaviorism, and the negative results, which are known as Punishes. However, he later said that the punishment was ineffective in the elimination of the connection between behavior and the result. Instead, he suggested that, After a punishment, the behavior is probably less predictable.

It is important to note that, according to the effect law, Animals learn an association between the response and the stimuli present, And the satisfactory consequences of the response only serve to strengthen this association, but are not directly involved in their training.