Describe Thorndike’s puzzle-box research and the laws of learning suggested by the results.
Thorndike had designed crude boxes of puzzles from old sticks and crates for using in research on learning of animal. It used it as an apparatus to study the unreliable reports by Morgan and Romanes describing the way dogs and cats unlatched the gates.
In an arrangement of experiments, Thorndike put a hungry cat in the box which was slatted. Food was kept outside as an award for departing. The cat was supposed to pull the lever to open the latch and subsequently the door.
Initially, the cat showed behaviors randomly like clawing, sniffing and poking to obtain the food. Finally, the cat learned the correct way and opened the door. In the first test, the occurrence of behavior was by chance. Subsequently, the behaviors which were random were less frequent till the time, learning was done.
For recording the data, quantitative measures were used by Thorndike. One way was logging the behaviors which were wrong, the actions not leading to depart. After many trials such behaviors were eliminated.
Other way was recording the time which elapsed from the time of placing cat in the box to the time it was successful in escaping. As there was learning taking place, such kind of time interval reduced.
Thorndike talked about “in” and “out” stamping, a tendency of response through its unfavorable or favorable consequences. Tendencies of responses which were unsuccessful not doing much for escaping were disappeared, “stamped out” over many trials.
Tendencies of responses leading to success were considered as “stamped in” after many trials. Such type of learning came to be termed as learning by trial-and-error. Thorndike called it success by trial-and-accident.