Law of Effect and Operant Conditioning

Edward Thorndike:

1. Explain Thorndike's puzzle-box experiment.


He made a puzzle box and then put a cat inside. Then the cat had to escpa ethe box and reach the goal(food).


2. Explain Thorndike's "Law of Effect".


The law of effect stated that the likely recurrence of a response is generally governed by its consequence or effect generally in the form of reward or punishment


3. Explain Thorndike's "Law of Exercise".


The law of exercise in brief explanation is that some stuff cannot be explained by observation and that we have perform the action.

B.F. Skinner:

1. Explain Skinner's concept of Operant Conditioning


Skinner's concept said that reinforcement and punishment both affect the behaviors in same and different ways.


2. What does  reinforcement always do?


Reinforcement increases teh behavior


3. What does a punishment alsways do?


Punishment decreases teh behavior


4. Explain the difference between "postive" and "negative" as they are used in opernat conditioning.


Positive reinforcemnet would be like giving prizes to a kid for doing good on the test and punishment would be taking away something, like an ipod from the kid.