THEORY EDWARD LEE THORNDIKE (Learning)
Hiba and Arooj
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning is different from operant conditioning. The former involves an
organism (human, rat, wombat, etc.) that is passive, simply responding to stimuli presented to
it. Operant conditioning however involves an organism that must first act upon (or operate
on) the environment in some way. As the organism acts, those acts (or behaviors) that are
followed by pleasurable outcomes (mouse pellets, praise, or money) are reinforced and tend
to be repeated. Those acts that are followed by punishing outcomes (electric shock, yelling,
imprisonment, or embarrassment) tend not to be repeated. Put another way, humans (and
other organisms) learn certain behaviors as they act and are rewarded or punished. Unlike
classical conditioning, operant conditioning is not concerned with simply pairing a stimulus
and response (S-R); rather, it focuses on A-B-C: The antecedent (the conditions before the
behavior), the behavior, and the consequences (what followed the behavior).
Edward Lee Thorndike
Edward Lee Thorndike’s (1874-1949) theories of learning are sometimes called
connectionism. Unlike Watson, Thorndike acknowledged the existence of thought, which he
called mental units. A mental unit was anything sensed or perceived or the sensing,
perceiving bit of consciousness. A physical unit was a stimulus or response (observable
behavior). Learning for Thorndike was a matter of making four kinds of connections: (a)
mental and physical units, (b) physical units with mental, (c) mental units with other mental
units, and (d) physical units with other physical units. His experiments looked for those
things that strengthened these connections.
Thorndike’s Hungry Cats
Thorndike’s learning theories came from his study of cats in a puzzle box (Lattal, 1998).
Here a hungry cat was put in a box. On the outside of the box was a fish that the cat could see
and smell. The box had a door that could be opened by pressing a lever inside the cage (see
Figure 11.1). To illustrate the relationship between the antecedent, behavior, and
consequence: the antecedent was the hungry cat, box, lever, and fish. Sensing the fish, the cat
would engage in a variety of behaviors in attempt to open the door and get the fish.
Eventually one of these behaviors (pressing the level) would result in the door opening and
the cat getting the fish. The consequence then was the open door and the fish (reward).
Learning for the hungry cat was a matter of making the connection between lever pressing
and door-opening/fish eating. This learning was incremental not insightful (see Figure 11.2).
This means that the cat was not able to gain sudden insight or make a logical connection
between level pressing and door-opening/fish-eating. Instead, the cat made small incremental
gains toward the lever-open door connection. Each time the cat was put in the puzzle box, it
took successively fewer tries for it to make this connection between. Finally, after many
times in the puzzle box, the cat eventually would go directly to the lever. This is called trial
and error learning or selecting and connecting. A behavior was selected (lever-pressing) and a
connection was eventually made and strengthened with the door-opening consequence.
Figure 11.2. Incremental vs. insightful learning
Laws of Learning
Based on his experiments, Thorndike came up with three laws of learning.
Law of effect – The strength of a connection is influenced by the consequences of a
response. In other words, an action followed by a pleasurable consequence is more likely to
be repeated. Inversely, an action followed by an annoying or painful consequence is less
likely to be repeated. Put simply, actions that are rewarded tend to be strengthened and
repeated, those that are punished tend to be weakened and not repeated. As a human example,
if little Billy tells a joke and is reward by laughter and attention (something he enjoys), he
will probably tell a joke at some point in the future. Learning is a function of the
consequences of behaviors rather than contiguity (two behaviors occur simultaneously). If
little Billy was to tell the same joke and instead of laughing, everybody turned away in
disgust, he would be less likely to tell a joke in the future. By the way, Thorndike found that
pleasure was more potent for stamping out response than pain. If you want a negative
behavior to go away, it is more effective to reward a conflicting positive behavior than to
simply punish the negative behavior. (Reward students for doing the positive things that
would make it impossible for them to do the negative things.)
Law of exercise – The more a stimulus-induced response is repeated the longer it will be
retained. Another way of saying this is that connections between a stimulus and response
becomes strengthened with practice and weakened when practice is discontinued. The more
often the cat is put in the puzzle box to make the connection between lever and gate opening,
the longer this behavior will be retained. However, if the cat was only put in the puzzle box
once every other week, the learning it had gained would quickly recede. That is, the number
of tries and the amount of time it took to press the level would increase. As a human example,
if little Billy was in a situation were he was able to engage in joketelling behavior every day
and got lots of laughter and positive attention, he would be well on his way toward become a
comedian. If he was in a situation where he was only able to tell an occasional joke (a very
restrictive or repressive environment) he might be well on his way toward becoming an
accountant.
Law of readiness – When a human is ready to act, it is reinforcing for it to do so and
annoying for is not to do so. When human is not ready to act, forcing it to do so is annoying.
When Billy is in a jovial mood where he wants to tell a joke, joke telling is reinforcing in and
of itself. Not being able to tell a joke is painful. In the same vein, if Billy were forced to tell
jokes when he did not want to do so, joke telling would be painful or annoying. The same
behavior (joke telling) can be either reinforcing or annoying depending on the antecedent or
condition of little Billy. The law of readiness has great implication for the holistic educators.
One of the important ideas that inform our practice is that learning should be natural. That is,
we should, to the greatest extent possible, create learning experiences that align with
students’ natural ways of interacting with the world. When students are curious and want to
learn, to do so is reinforcing. When they are not ready to learn, being made to do so is
painful. What are the ramifications? We should strive to include some open-ended
experiences and choice in our curriculums so that students can both discover and explore
topics that are of interest to them (again, to the greatest extent possible). Also, we should try
to create personal connections to the curriculum; teaching content and skills that have real life
applications and implications. When a child is ready to learn, being able to do so is
reinforcing. This also suggests that motivation is an important aspect of learning and should
be given more consideration that is currently the case in most school settings. Learning that is
based on students’ intrinsic desire to learn and find out about themselves and the world in
which they live is more apt to create powerful learning experiences. What are your students
curious about? What do they want to learn? What concerns do they have in their lives? What
would they like to be able to do? How would they like to learn? Why not ask them? This
could be the start of some real learning. This does not mean; however, that you need to
abandon your curriculum or ignore the content standards that have been assigned to you
(usually in the form of top-down mandates). This instead is an invitation to adopt and adapt
the curriculum to meet the needs and interests of your students. This, by the way is what
makes teaching exciting and interesting and keeps so many excellent teachers coming back
every year. Teaching is a creative, intellectual endeavor when the teacher is allowed to make
choices in regards to what and how to teach. However, simply opening the teachers’ manual
and replicating what it tells you is extremely boring and not nearly as effective.
REFERENCE
https://www.academia.edu/12523966/OPERANT_CONDITIONING_EDWARD_TH
ORNDIKE
Andrew P. Johnson, Education Psychology: Theories of Learning and Human
Development (2014).
