Psychology as a field was in its nascent stage towards the end of the 19th century. Initially, there were psychologists such as William James who claimed that human behavior was the result of instincts. However, there came a new school of thought called behaviorism that proposed that all human behavior was the result of experience. That is, humans behave as a result of their exposure to a complex set of stimuli.
Edward Thorndike, too, was an American psychologist and a behaviorist who is known for his famous law called the Thorndike’s Law of Effect. Edward Lee Thorndike made a significant contribution towards the reinforcement theory and Behavior Analysis. In addition to this, he is known for a number of other works. These include Thorndike’s theory of Connectionism, Edward Thorndike’s theory of intelligence, and Thorndike’s theory of learning.
Further, Thorndike served as the President of the American Psychological Association in 1912 and was also the first psychologist to be admitted to the National Academy of Sciences in 1917.
To understand Thorndike’s important contribution to psychology, it is necessary to understand his primary law, called the law of effect, as well as secondary laws of Thorndike.
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
Thorndike’s Law of Effect states that animals and human entities develop connections between stimulus and response. Further, such a connection strengthens if the stimulus results in a response that is pleasant, rewarding, or satisfactory for the entity.
On the other hand, such connection weakens if the stimulus results in a response that is unpleasant, punishing, or unsatisfactory.
Also, such bonds between stimulus and response develop over the lifetime of human entities.
Thus, as per Thorndike, behaviorism is nothing but the interaction between stimulus and response.
Thorndike’s Law of Effect Example
The best example of Thorndike’s law of effect can be seen in the classroom. For instance, the child is motivated to study if the teacher encourages him to study the subjects of his interest. Likewise, a student is motivated to perform well if he is rewarded for his efforts.
Secondary Laws of Thorndike
Apart from the law of effect, Thorndike rolled out other laws called the secondary laws of Thorndike. Let’s have a look at each of these.
1. Learning Through Trial and Error
In this principle of learning through trial and error, Thorndike stated that human entities developed bonds between a stimulus and response as a result of trial and error. In other words, learning in humans is the result of trial and error which includes trying various responses and choosing the one that brings satisfaction.
2. Effect and Exercise Laws
Thorndike divides this law into the law of use and the law of disuse. The law of use states that the bond between a stimulus and response becomes stronger if the human entity uses the same response for a given stimulus repeatedly. Similarly, the law of disuse states that the bond between the stimulus and response weakens if the human entities do not relate a stimulus with a response for a long period of time.
3. Law of Readiness
As the name suggests, this law states that the human entity should be stimulated to showcase a previously learned behavior. Readiness here means the extent to which the human entity has the desire to undertake a particular activity or behavior.
4. Principle of Associative Learning
As per this principle, a human entity would respond to a given current stimulus which is different from the previous stimulus in the same manner as it responded to the previous stimulus. This is however the case only if the current stimulus is only slightly different from the previous stimulus.
5. Identical Theory of Transfer
Through the identical theory of transfer, Thorndike laid out that things learned previously by the human entity encourage new or future learning. However, the new learning occurs to a degree to which the new tasks are made of components that are identical to the component in the previous task.
6. Law of Multiple Responses
This is on the similar lines as the law of trial and error. As per this law, an animal or a human entity will continue to respond to a given stimulus until such a response brings satisfaction or pleasant outcomes for the entity.
7. Prepotency of Elements
As per this principle, a human entity is more likely to respond to the important elements of the given stimulus as compared to the unimportant elements.
8. Law of Analogy
In this law, Thorndike states that a person responds to a given stimulus because such a stimulus is similar to the one he has already experienced previously.
9. Law of Associative Shifting
As the name suggests, this law states that a human entity may shift his or her response from one stimulus to the other. Thus, a human entity can learn to make responses to a stimulus that he/she made to another stimulus previously, if the overall situation remains unchanged.
10. Law of Availability
In this law, Thorndike states that if the learning process of the individual is complete, he can use the knowledge he gained in his prior experiences to respond to a given stimulus. However, the ease with which he is able to use that knowledge depends on how well he developed the connection between stimuli and responses.
