Edward Lee "Ted" Thorndike was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career
at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on Comparative psychology and the
learning process led to the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for
modern educational psychology. He also worked on solving industrial problems, such as employee
exams and testing. He was a member of the board of the Psychological Corporation and
served as president of the American Psychological Association in 1912.
Early life Thorndike, born in Williamsburg, Massachusetts,
was the son of a Methodist minister in Lowell, Massachusetts. Thorndike graduated from The
Roxbury Latin School, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts and from Wesleyan University. He earned an
M.A. at Harvard University in 1897. While at Harvard, he was interested in how
animals learn, and worked with William James. Afterwards, he became interested in the animal
'man', to the study of which he then devoted his life. Edward's thesis is sometimes thought
of as the essential document of modern comparative psychology. Upon graduation, Thorndike returned
to his initial interest, educational psychology. In 1898 he completed his PhD at Columbia University
under the supervision of James McKeen Cattell, one of the founding fathers of psychometrics.
In 1899, after a year of unhappy initial employment at the College for Women of Case Western Reserve
in Cleveland, Ohio, he became an instructor in psychology at Teachers College at Columbia
University, where he remained for the rest of his career, studying human learning, education,
and mental testing. In 1937 Thorndike became the second President of the Psychometric Society,
following in the footsteps of Louis Leon Thurstone who had established the society and its journal
Psychometrika the previous year. On August 29, 1900, he wed Elizabeth Moulton
and they had five children. During the early stages of his career, he
purchased a wide tract of land on the Hudson and encouraged other researchers to settle
around him. Soon a colony had formed there with him as its 'tribal' chief.
Connectionism Thorndike was a pioneer not only in behaviorism
and in studying learning, but also in using animals in psychology experiments. Thorndike
was able to create a theory of learning based on his research with animals. His doctoral
dissertation, “Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals”,
was the first in psychology where the subjects were nonhumans. Thorndike was interested in
whether animals could learn tasks through imitation or observation. To test this, Thorndike
created puzzle boxes. The puzzle boxes were approximately 20 inches long, 15 inches
wide, and 12 inches tall. Each box had a door that was pulled open by a weight attached
to a string that ran over a pulley and was attached to the door. The string attached
to the door led to a lever or button inside the box. When the animal pressed the bar or
pulled the lever, the string attached to the door would cause the weight to lift and the
door to open. Thorndike’s puzzle boxes were arranged so that the animal would be required
to perform a certain response, while he measured the amount of time it took them to escape.
Once the animal had performed the desired response they were allowed to escape and were
also given a reward, usually food. Thorndike primarily used cats in his puzzle boxes. When
the cats were put into the cages they would wander restlessly and meow, but they did not
know how to escape. Eventually, the cats would step on the switch on the floor by chance,
and the door would open. To see if the cats could learn through observation, he had them
observe other animals escaping from the box. He would then compare the times of those who
got to observe others escaping with those who did not, and he found that there was no
difference in their rate of learning. Thorndike saw the same results with other animals, and
he observed that there was no improvement even when he placed the animals’ paws on
the correct levers, buttons, or bar. These failures led him to fall back on a trial and
error explanation of learning. He found that after accidentally stepping on the switch
once, they would press the switch faster in each succeeding trial inside the puzzle box.
By observing and recording the animals’ escapes and escape times, Thorndike was able
to graph the times it took for the animals in each trial to escape, resulting in a learning
curve. The animals had difficulty escaping at first, but eventually “caught on” and
escaped faster and faster with each successive puzzle box trial, until they eventually leveled
off. The quickened rate of escape results in the s-shape of the learning curve. The
learning curve also suggested that different species learned in the same way but at different
speeds. From his research with puzzle boxes, Thorndike was able to create his own theory
of learning. The puzzle box experiments were motivated in part by Thorndike's dislike for
statements that animals made use of extraordinary faculties such as insight in their problem
solving: "In the first place, most of the books do not give us a psychology, but rather
a eulogy of animals. They have all been about animal intelligence, never about animal stupidity."
Thorndike meant to distinguish clearly whether or not cats escaping from puzzle boxes were
using insight. Thorndike's instruments in answering this question were learning curves
revealed by plotting the time it took for an animal to escape the box each time it was
in the box. He reasoned that if the animals were showing insight, then their time to escape
would suddenly drop to a negligible period, which would also be shown in the learning
curve as an abrupt drop; while animals using a more ordinary method of trial and error
would show gradual curves. His finding was that cats consistently showed gradual learning.
Adult learning Thorndike put his testing expertise to work
for the United States Army during World War I. He created both the Alpha and Beta versions
that led to today's ASVAB, a multiple choice test administered by the United States Military
Entrance Processing Command that is used to determine qualification for enlistment in
the United States armed forces. For classification purposes, soldiers were administered Alpha
tests. With the realization that some soldiers could not read well enough to complete the
Alpha test, the Beta test was administered. Such contributions anchored the field of psychology
and encouraged later development of educational psychology.
Thorndike believed that “Instruction should pursue specified, socially useful goals.”
Thorndike believed that the ability to learn did not decline until age 35, and only then
at a rate of 1 percent per year, going against the thoughts of the time that "you can't teach
old dogs new tricks." It was later shown that the speed of learning, not the power of learning
declined with age. Thorndike also stated the law of effect, which says behaviors that are
followed by good consequences are likely to be repeated in the future.
Thorndike identified the three main areas of intellectual development. The first being
abstract intelligence. This is the ability to process and understand different concepts.
The second is mechanical intelligence, which is the ability to handle physical objects.
Lastly there is social intelligence. This is the ability to handle human interaction
Thorndike was one of the first pioneers of active learning, a theory that proposes letting
children learn themselves, rather than receiving instruction from teachers.
Thorndike's theory of learning Learning is incremental.
Learning occurs automatically. All animals learn the same way.
Law of effect- if an association is followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” it
will be strengthened and if it is followed by an “annoying state of affairs “ it
will be weakened. Thorndike’s law of exercise has two parts;
the law of use and the law of disuse. Law of use- the more often an association
is used the stronger it becomes. Law of disuse- the longer an association is
unused the weaker it becomes.
Law of recency- the most recent response is most likely to reoccur.
Multiple response- problem solving through trial and error. An animal will try multiple
responses if the first response does not lead to a specific state of affairs.
Set or attitude- animals are predisposed to act in a specific way.
Prepotency of elements- a subject can filter out irrelevant aspects of a problem and focus
and respond only to significant elements of a problem.
Response by analogy- responses from a related or similar context may be used in a new context.
Identical elements theory of transfer- This theory states that the extent to which information
learned in one situation will transfer to another situation is determined by the similarity
between the two situations. The more similar the situations are, the greater the amount
of information that will transfer. Similarly, if the situations have nothing in common,
information learned in one situation will not be of any value in the other situation.
Associative shifting- it is possible to shift any response from occurring with one stimulus
to occurring with another stimulus. Associative shift maintains that a response is first made
to situation A, then to AB, and then finally to B, thus shifting a response from one condition
to another by associating it with that condition. Law of readiness- a quality in responses and
connections that results in readiness to act. Thorndike acknowledges that responses may
differ in their readiness. He claims that eating has a higher degree of readiness than
vomiting, that weariness detracts from the readiness to play and increases the readiness
to sleep. Also, Thorndike argues that a low or negative status in respect to readiness
is called unreadiness. Behavior and learning are influenced by the readiness or unreadiness
of responses, as well as by their strength. Identifiability- According to Thorndike, the
identification or placement of a situation is a first response of the nervous system,
which can recognize it. Then connections may be made to one another or to another response,
and these connections depend upon the original identification. Therefore, a large amount
of learning is made up of changes in the identifiability of situations. Thorndike also believed that
analysis might turn situations into compounds of features, such as the number of sides on
a shape, to help the mind grasp and retain the situation, and increase their identifiability.
Availability- The ease of getting a specific response. For example, it would be easier
for a person to learn to touch their nose or mouth than it would be for them to draw
a line 5 inches long with their eyes closed. Development of law of effect
Thorndike's research focused on instrumental learning, which means that learning is developed
from the organism doing something. For example, he placed a cat inside a wooden box. The cats
used various methods trying to get out, however it does not work until it hits the lever.
Afterwards, Thorndike tried placing the cat inside the wooden box again, this time, the
cat is able to hit the lever quickly and succeeded to get out from the box.
At first, Thorndike emphasized the importance of dissatisfaction stemming from failure as
equal to the reward of satisfaction with success, though in his experiments and trials on humans
he came to conclude that reward is a much more effective motivator than punishment.
He also emphasized that the satisfaction must come immediately after the success, or the
lesson would not sink in. Eugenic views
Thorndike was a proponent of eugenics. He argued that "selective breeding can alter
man's capacity to learn, to keep sane, to cherish justice or to be happy. There is no
more certain and economical a way to improve man's environment as to improve his nature."
Criticism Thorndike's law of effect and puzzle box methodology
were subjected to detailed criticism by behaviorists and many other psychologists. The criticisms
over the law of effect mostly cover four aspects of the theory: the implied or retroactive
working of the effect, the philosophical implication of the law, the identification of the effective
conditions that cause learning, and the comprehensive usefulness of the law.
Thorndike's word books Thorndike composed three different word books
to assist teachers with word and reading instruction. After publication of the first book in the
series, The Teacher's Word Book, two other books were written and published, each approximately
a decade apart from its predecessor. The second book in the series, its full title being A
Teacher's Word Book of the Twenty Thousand Words Found Most Frequently and Widely in
General Reading for Children and Young People, was published in 1932, and the third and final
book, The Teacher's Word Book of 30,000 Words, was published in 1944.
In the preface to the third book, Thorndike writes that the list contained therein “tells
anyone who wishes to know whether to use a word in writing, speaking, or teaching how
common the word is in standard English reading matter”, and he further advises that the
list can best be employed by teachers if they allow it to guide the decisions they make
choosing which words to emphasize during reading instruction. Some words require more emphasis
than others, and, according to Thorndike, his list informs teachers of the most frequently
occurring words that should be reinforced by instruction and thus become “a permanent
part of [students’] stock of word knowledge”. If a word is not on the list but appears in
an educational text, its meaning only needs to be understood temporarily in the context
in which it was found, and then summarily discarded from memory.
In Appendix A to the second book, Thorndike gives credit to his word counts and how frequencies
were assigned to particular words. Selected sources extrapolated from Appendix A include:
Children’s Reading: Black Beauty, Little Women, Treasure Island, A Christmas Carol,
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Youth’s Companion, school primers, first readers, second readers,
and third readers Standard Literature: The Bible, Shakespeare,
Tennyson, Wordsworth, Cowper, Pope, and Milton Common Facts and Trades: The United States
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, A New Book of Cookery, Practical Sewing and
Dress Making, Garden and Farm Almanac, and mail-order catalogues
Thorndike also examined local newspapers and correspondence for common words to be included
in the book. Thorndike's influence
Thorndike contributed a great deal to psychology. His influence on animal psychologists, especially
those who focused on behavior plasticity, greatly contributed to the future of that
field. In addition to helping pave the way towards behaviorism, his contribution to measurement
influenced philosophy, the administration and practice of education, military administration,
industrial personnel administration, civil service and many public and private social
services. Thorndike influenced many schools of psychology as Gestalt psychologists, psychologists
studying the conditioned reflex, and behavioral psychologists all studied Thorndike’s research
as a starting point. Thorndike was a contemporary of John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov. However,
unlike Watson, Thorndike introduced the concept of reinforcement. Thorndike was the first
to apply psychological principles to the area of learning. His research led to many theories
and laws of learning. His theory of learning, especially the law of effect, is most often
considered to be his greatest achievement. In 1929, Thorndike addressed his early theory
of learning, and claimed that he had been wrong. After further research, he was forced
to denounce his law of exercise completely, because he found that practice alone did not
strengthen an association, and that time alone did not weaken an association. He also got
rid of half of the law of effect, after finding that a satisfying state of affairs strengthens
an association, but punishment is not effective in modifying behavior. He placed a great emphasis
on consequences of behavior as setting the foundation for what is and is not learned.
His work represents the transition from the school of functionalism to behaviorism, and
enabled psychology to focus on learning theory. Thorndike’s work would eventually be a major
influence to B.F. Skinner and Clark Hull. Skinner, like Thorndike, put animals in boxes
and observed them to see what they were able to learn. The learning theories of Thorndike
and Pavlov were later synthesized by Clark Hull. His work on motivation and attitude
formation directly affected studies on human nature as well as social order. Thorndike’s
research drove comparative psychology for fifty years, and influenced countless psychologists
over that period of time, and even still today. Accomplishments
In 1912, Thorndike was elected president for the American Psychological Association. He
was admitted to the National Academy of Sciences in 1917. He was one of the very first psychologists
to be admitted to the association. Thorndike is well known for his experiments on animals
supporting the law of effect. In 1934, Thorndike was elected president of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science. Selected works
See also Halo effect
Robert L. Thorndike Transfer of learning
Notes
References
Woodworth, R. S.. "Edward Thorndike 1874-1949". Science, New Series. 111(2880): 251. http:www.jstor.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca1676976
External links Works by Edward L. Thorndike, at Hathi Trust
Edward Thorndike biography Classics in the history of Psychology - Animal
Intelligence by Thorndike Edward L. Thorndike at www.nwlink.com