Psychology 3351: Learning

1
Psychology 3351 Learning
Day 4

• D. Rush McQueen, Ph.D.
• drmcqueen_at_troy.edu
• 334.399.1028

2
Quiz

• E.L. Thorndikes theories best fall under which
  school of thought?
• Voluntarism
• Structuralism
• Functionalism
• None of these
• Thorndike first studied the behavior of
• Frogs
• Dogs
• Chickens
• None of these
• Connectionism refers to
• Interpersonal relationships between family
  members.
• Bonds between atoms.
• Neural connections between stimulus and response.
• None of these.
• To Thorndike, learning
• Occurs by trial-and-error.
• Is incremental rather than insightful.
• Is not mediated by ideas.

3
Quiz (part II)

• Thorndikes concept of Belongingness suggests
  that
• A response that satisfies the need state of an
  organism is easier to reinforce.
• The reinforcement of a response tends to
  reinforce similar or related responses.
• Both A and B.
• None of these.
• Thorndikes concept of Spread of Effect suggests
  that
• A response that satisfies the need state of an
  organism is easier to reinforce.
• The reinforcement of a response tends to
  reinforce similar or related responses.
• Both A and B.
• None of these.
• Your text asserts that Thorndikes Associative
  Shifting is often used
• In training animals.
• In advertising.
• Both of these.
• Neither of these.
• According to your text, those critical of
  Thorndike were most often so because
• He was a student of William James.
• His theories were deterministic, focused on
  automatic reactions rather than based on values.
• They felt he was cruel to the animals he used as
  research subjects.

4
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874 1949)

• Born Williamsburg, Massachusetts
• Second son of a Methodist minister
• Undergraduate at Wesleyan University
• Read James Principles of Psychology
• Later attended Harvard and worked with James and
  became close
• Could not get lab space at Harvard so raised
  chicks in the James basement

5
E.L. ThorndikeMajor Theoretical Concepts

• Connectionism the idea that there is a neural
  connection between stimulus (S) and response (R)
• Selecting and Connecting trial-and-error
  learning what works is repeated
• Incremental learning small steps rather than
  moments of insight
• Ideas as unnecessary parsimony reasoning is
  not necessary
• All mammals learn in the same manner

6
Thorndikes Puzzle Boxes

• Video Clip

7
Thorndike after 1930

• Revised Law of Effect reinforcement increases
  the strength of a connection, whereas punishment
  does nothing to the strength of a connection
• Belongingness learning occurs more readily if
  there is a natural relationship between the need
  state of the organism and the effect caused by
  the response
• Spread of Effect reinforcement spreads to
  responses surrounding the reinforced one

8
Thorndike on Education

• Consider the situation the student faces.
• Consider the response you wish to connect with
  it.
• Form the bond do not expect it to come by a
  miracle.
• Other things being equal, form no bond that will
  have to be broken.
• Other things being equal, do not two or three
  bonds when one will do.
• Other things being equal, form bonds in the way
  that they are required later to act.
• Favor, therefore, the situations which life
  itself will offer, and the responses which life
  itself will demand.