Thorndike, Edward

Edward Thorndike's (1874–1949) work was among the initial attempts to examine and explain memory and learning. His work, along with that of John B. Watson, is relevant to educators, as it has had a direct impact on academic instruction, classroom management, and administrative practices.

Thorndike was born August 31, 1874, in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. He took a BA in 1895 at Wesleyan University and an MA at Harvard in 1897. He received his PhD in 1898 from Columbia University.

In 1927, while working on a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, he launched a series of investigations on learning that led to Thorndike's law of effect. This law that had its origin in early tests and experiments by Watson related to the impact of positive and negative consequences on behavior and was ultimately substantially supportive of these experiments in human learning. Through this early work, Thorndike concluded that repetition and reward were critical factors in learning. In 1932, he reported on a series of six experiments with chicks, concluding that rewarding a connection strengthens it; punishing consequences weakened it a little or not at all.

The basis of learning accepted by Thorndike in his earliest writings was association between sense impressions and impulses to action. Such associations became known as “bonds” or “connections.” Because the bonds or connections were thought to become strengthened or weakened in establishing and breaking habits, Thorndike's system has sometimes been called a “bond” psychology or simply “connectionism.” Thorndike's work formed the foundation for later work by John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner and underpins the theory of behaviorism.

Thorndike developed three basic laws to underpin his theory. The first of these, the law of readiness, is an accessory principle that describes a physiological substratum for the law of effect. It describes the following conditions under which a learner tends to be [Page 1020]satisfied or annoyed: (a) When a conduction unit is ready to conduct, conduction is satisfying; (b) for a conduction unit ready to conduct, not to conduct is annoying; this condition provokes any response related to the annoyance; (c) when a conduction unit is not ready for conduction and is forced to conduct, conduction is annoying.

The second of Thorndike's laws, the law of exercise, refers to the strengthening of connections with practice (law of use) and to weakening of connections or forgetting when practice is discontinued (law of disuse). Strengthening is defined by the increase in probability that the response will be made when the situation recurs.

Thorndike's third important law, the law of effect, refers to the strengthening or weakening of a connection as a result of its consequences. When a response or behavior is accompanied by or followed by a satisfying consequence, the strength of the connection is increased; if the connection is made and followed by an annoying consequence, the strength is decreased.

Thorndike's theory, grounded in these laws, was an initial attempt to study “how we learn, remember, and forget.” It is significant for educators in that it underpins philosophy and practice in the schools and forms a foundation for the field of educational psychology. For educational leaders, Thorndike's law of effect is relevant to understanding how to motivate others. In addition, the impact of repetition or practice encompassed by his law of exercise provides a foundation for ensuring that specific behaviors tend to appear in the desired situations.

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