According to Guthrie, what is the function of “reinforcement”? What did Guthrie and Horton observe that confirmed their view of “reinforcement ”?
According to Thorndike, cats became more proficient in escaping from a puzzle box by experienced a satisfying state of affairs that is collectively known as reinforcement. Infact, Guthrie rejected this conceptual idea. He explained the effects of reinforcement in the terms of the recency principle by describing that when a cat responds in a puzzle box, it allowed it to escape by moving towards a pole and thus, changed the entire configuration of the puzzle box.
According to Guthrie, moving towards the pole comes at the last thing by triggering the set of stimuli that marks the prereinforcemnt conditions and thus, cat will make her own way by next placing in the puzzle box. Guthrie defined the reinforcement in the terms of stimulating conditions that prevents unlearning conditions. In other approach, reinforcement has the ability to preserve the preceded association in a mechanical arrangement that prevents the confinement towards unlearning process.
Guthrie and Horton studied 800 escape responses by cats. They observed that cats have the ability to learned to move towards a pole to escape from outside. In this, one cat would hit the pole by backing into it, another would push it with its head and another would move it with its paws.
This generates stereotype behavior that supported Guthrie’s theory by moving to the concept that an animal faced last in a situation will be repeated when the situation recurs that are known as recency principle. It suggested that moving towards the pole changes the stimulating conditions that preserving the association between the pre-escape conditions and the characteristic response to an animal’s conditions.