Operant Conditioning (1)

Question 1

What do habituation and classical conditioning fail to explain?

Answer 1

• Goal-directed behaviour
• Increases in behaviour in response to cases of reinforcement.

Question 2

Which theory explains the acquisition of goal-directed responses?

Answer 2

Operant conditioning (also known as instrumental conditioning).

Question 3

Which law did Edward Thorndike (Thorndike) develop?

Answer 3

The law of effect

Question 4

What does the law of effect state?

Answer 4

That behaviours followed by pleasant or rewarding consequences are more likely to be repeated, while behaviours followed by unpleasant or punishing consequences are less likely to be repeated.

Question 5

What does Thorndike’s law of effect link to the strengthening of a stimulus-response bond?

Answer 5

The selective effects of reinforcement.

Question 6

According to the law of effect, how do animals come to know whether harm or benefit will result from a given behaviour, causing their behaviour to either increase or decrease?

Answer 6

Through trial-and-error learning.

Question 7

Which experiment did Thorndike carry out to test the law of effect?

Answer 7

• He put a cat in a box, and let it out to get food if it pushed the button inside of the box.
• The more times the cat was put in the box, the quicker it took it to get out, validating the law of effect.