Trial and error learning Thorndike 1898, 1911

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Trial and error learningThorndike1898, 1911
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Thorndikes puzzle-box experiment

• Thorndike put a hungry cat in a puzzle box and
  placed fish outside the box where it could be
  seen, but was out of reach.
• In order to escape from the box to get the food,
  the cat had to operate a latch to release a door
  on the side of the box.
• Through a process of trial and error the cat
  learned that pushing the lever opened the door.

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Thorndikes puzzle-box experiment
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• Problem to be solved
• Solution tried 
• Solution works Solution fails
• Practice solution

the organism has been instrumental in bringing
about the solution
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Trial and error learning

• A kind of learning in which one response after
  another is tried (eg, trials) and rejected as
  ineffective (eg, errors), until eventually a
  successful response is made.
• An organism slowly eliminates responses that do
  not achieve the desired outcome, and continues to
  respond in different ways until they determine
  the response that leads to the desired reward.

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Instrumental learning

• The term used by Thorndike to refer to the
  process whereby an organism learns the
  association between behaviour and its
  consequences.
• Also called operant conditioning (a term
  introduced by Skinner)

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Influences

• Motivation
• There needs to be a desire to attain some goal
• Exploration
• There needs to be an increase in activity
  either purposeful or random
• Incorrect or correct responses
• There needs to be a combination of incorrect and
  correct responses or else it is not trial and
  error learning
• Rewards
• There needs to be a reward for the correct
  behaviour

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Law of effect

• Behaviour that is followed by a pleasant
  consequence is strengthened
• more likely to occur again
• Behaviour that is followed by an unpleasant
  consequence is weakened
• less likely to occur again

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Real-life applications

• Problem-solving, especially if there are no
  instructions or prior experience with the task.
• By allowing variety of responses, lateral
  thinking skills may develop.