Edward Thorndike:
1. Explain Thorndike's puzzle-box experiment.
He made a cage that required an animal to perform a certain action to set himself free. For example he placed a foot pedal and a cat, at first the cat would just meow, when it accidentally stepped on the pedal, the cage would open.
He studied how quickly the cat learned to perform response in order to get free. He believed learning occurred through trial and error. The animal would make many wrong responses at first, then it would eventually learn to repeat the ones that got him free. He felt that learning was a matter of creating associations between stimuli and responses.
2. Explain Thorndike's "Law of Effect".
He explained that animals tend to repeat a behavior that resulted in a “pleasing effect”. He believed that when the animal accidentally stumbled upon a behavior that produced an effect that they liked this created a link between a stimulus (the cage) and a response (stepping on the switch). Later, in the same stimulus situation, that response would occur faster.
3. Explain Thorndike's "Law of Exercise".
It said that behavioral responses that had a satisfying result were most likely to become patterns and would be repeated when presented with the same stimulus. The law of exercise claimed that behavior is established by frequent connection between the stimulus and response.
B.F. Skinner:
1. Explain Skinner's concept of Operant Conditioning
It is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments of behavior. In operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. It is learning by the consequence of our behavior. It deals with the modification of voluntary behavior. It uses reinforcement or punishment to get the desired behavior.
2. What does reinforcement always do? Increase the desired behavior. If it is positive reinforcement it increases the behavior desired, when it is negative reinforcement, it decreases the negative behavior that one desires to be abolished, therefore increasing what we wanted to accomplish.
3. What does a punishment always do? Punishment always decreases the required behavior. Positive punishment weakens the response it follows.
4. Explain the difference between "positive" and "negative" as they are used in operant conditioning
The basic tools of operant conditioning are reinforcement and punishment. They are either positive (given following a response), or negative (taken away following a response). Positive in this sense refers to addition of either tool while negative refers to the subtraction of either tool.
http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch08_animals/thorndikes_puzzle_box.html
http://tip.psychology.org/skinner.html
