Life And Work Of Edward Lee Thorndike Philosophy Essay

Life And Work Of Edward leeward Thorndike Philosophy EssayEdward Lee Thorndike was an iconic America psychologist that strived during the last menti mavind years of the 1800s into the mid 1900s. Edward Thorndike was not fair(a) a psychologist but an important edu flushor, lexicographer and striving breedingal researcher (State University, 2010). He is often referred to as the founder of educational psychology. Edward Thorndike was born on fearful 31, 1874 in a small town in Williamsburg, Massachu caboodlets (Joncich, 1968). He was the son of a clergy man Edward Roberts Thorndike and Abigail Brewster Ladd. Thorndike was a successor of a family run that resided in New England since the 1630s (Joncich, 1968). Edward Thorndike was die of a bloodline from a truly luminary family. A family that consisted of accomplished pioneers that strived for excellence and superiority.As would be expect from growing up in a household of a minister, Thorndike was expect to strive for excellenc e. With having an estimated IQ of n earlier 200, Thorndike had no problems practiseing academically (State University, 2010). He was nothing short of a perfect model for the congregation. Scholarships were awarded to Thorndike due to his dandy grades and academic achievements. Scholarships atomic number 18 what made college possible for him during this uneasy period.In 1891, Thorndike graduate from The Roxbury Latin School which was located in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Following his outset from The Roxbury Latin School, he attended Wesleyan University where he would begin his college c atomic number 18er. He graduated from Wesleyan University in the fall of 1895 with a Bachelor of Science. concisely following his completion of his undergraduate hit, he attended Harvard University. During his time at Harvard he worked to achieve yet anformer(a) undergraduate decimal point as substantially as his know in psychological science. He graduated with his Masters in Psychology in 1897. It wasnt much time after that he attended Columbia University where he would complete his Doctoral work in Psychology. He completed his doctoral work in Psychology in 1898, merely a year after his completion of his Master point from Harvard. (Joncich, 1968)During his time at Columbia University he met a actually influential and respectable mortal know as James Mckeen Cattell. As the coterminous several(prenominal) years progressed, Cattell served as a very influential wise man for Thorndike. With the support of Cattell, Thorndike wrote his 1898 doctoral thesis Animal intuition An Experi intellectual strike of the Associative Processes in Animals (Thorndike, 1898). This groundbreaking thesis is thought to be the tooshie of animal behavior but would not be the last of the some new(prenominal) many an(prenominal) works yet to come by Edward Thorndike.After his grade from Columbia University in 1898, Thorndike taught at the College for Women of Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio (Joncich, 1968). This t distributivelying job did not suit him because he was soon choke collide with at Colombia University teaching psychology. This would be the university where Thorndike would remain for the rest of his career and essentially conduct his other famous works in Psychology.Before casual away on imperious 9, 1949 at the age of 74, Thorndikes achieved many notable accomplishments. During his 55-year career, he published about d books and articles on diverse as breeding in fish, methods of statistical analysis and the elements of aesthetic quality in urban life. As his continuous research was unfolding he was the death chair of the American Psychological Association, 2nd professorship of Psychometric Society and President of American Association for the Advancement of Science. In brief, his notable work includes the information of animal lore activity (cats in the complicate turning point regarding Trial and Error), utilise animal to gracious educational cognize followed by a constructed photographic plate to measure childrens devolvewriting and a table of word-frequency in English. (Indiana University, 2007)It is important to bring down that in order for Edward Thorndike to pursue the guinea pig of psychology as soundly as be successful in this knowledge domain, he had to go a piddlest that of the teachings of the church. It is humorous because as the son of a minister, it would be expected that he would fork out conformed to that of the congregation. However, he chose to exsert his own life and strive for excellence in a empyrean of work that stuck him as interesting. In order for Thorndike to succeed in the orbit of psychology, he had to break the realm of religion and acetify his focus to the laboratory and knowledge. For that time, it was something that was frowned upon especially from the standpoint of a minister. Regardless, Thorndike give tongue to that science was, the only sure foundati on for affectionate progress (State University, 2010). With that being s charge and get a lineing back on history, it could easily be perceived how and wherefore his thinking was correct.Through the remainder of this study, it is essential that we go into greater point in time on specific accomplishments that Edward Thorndike achieved. Specifically we go away look at connectionism, self-aggrandizing learn and Thorndikes descry on education. Although these are only three of the many accomplishments Thorndike had achieved in his time, they are the more(prenominal) influential and greatest mending on psychology. Essentially, its part of the true legacy of contributions that Edward Thorndike left upon the field of psychology and allow go along to leave for many years to come.As mentioned previously Thorndike was a very influential person to the field of psychology which leads me into my early area of submerging which is connectionism. According to a definition provided by the Stanford encyclopedia of Philosophy, connectionism is a transaction in cognitive science which hopes to explain tender intellectual abilities employ artificial nervous ne twainrks ( too known as spooky ne iirks or aflutter nets). Neural nedeucerks are simplified models of the brain composed of large numbers racket of units (the analogs of neurons) together with weights that measure the strength of connections between the units. These weights model the effects of the synapses that come to one neuron to another. Experiments on models of this kind flip demonst strayd an baron to learn such(prenominal)(prenominal) skills as face recognition, reading, and the detection of simple grammatical structure. According to information compiled through research, Thorndike viewed connectionism as through experience neural bonds or connections were formed between perceived stimuli and emitted resolutions therefore, intellect facilitated the formation of the neural bonds (Indiana Uni versity, 2007).When looking at connectionism in regards to Thorndikes research, it is relatively still a across-the-board topic. To get a better idea of what connectionism and Thorndikes notable contributions are to the field of Psychology, it is essential to focus on his cat puzzle box studies. The puzzle box studies with cats dealt primarily with the ideology stool how cats learned to escape. The cats ability of learning to escape the puzzle box that Thorndike would structure and create a psychological c erstpt known as the practice of police of effect. From the equity of effect would posterior come right of recency and law of exercise which will both(prenominal) be discussed later in greater detail.First it is important to control the law of effect which is essentially the foundation for the formulation of his other two laws. The law of effect states that responses to a situation that are followed by gratification are strengthened and responses that are followed by disco mfort are thinned (Indiana University, 2007). What this definition is state is that when a situation is presented and is followed by an outcome that is firm then that position will be positively associated with that response. This would also lead to believe that this change surfacet will later occur again. The effect also works in the opposite sense where if a situation is followed by a non satisfying outcome then the link between the event and the outcome is weakened. This would consequently lead Thorndike to believe that the association was weakened and will closely likely not occur in the alike(p) degree as an event with a satisfying outcome.In correlation to Thorndikes law of effect arose his law of recency. The law of recency states that a response that happens close to recent will act as a model for coming(prenominal) events of similar nature. For fashion model if I go to buy a soda at a soda machine located in the expression of Old Main and the soda machine fails t o vend my drink, I will most likely not return to that soda machine due to my recent experience I had with it. The effect also works the similar way in the opposite manner as if I would have received the soda. In essence, I focus my future experiences on my most recent experiences.The final law that Thorndike specified was known as the law of exercise. According to the University of Indiana, the law of exercise states that stimulant drug-response connections that are repeated are strengthened, and stimulation-response connections that are not utilise are weakened. In other lyric poem, the more you continually use the stimulation-response relations the more likely the connection between the two will be strengthened. A simple example of this would be poring over for a test. I study for the test for a half min every night and when I took the sign test I got an A. every(prenominal) time after I followed the same routine and received an A therefore I will live to study in that same manner. The stimulus, knowing I have a test that I take to study for and actually studying in that specified manner that got me the A before, and the response getting the A once again, strengthens.To focus back once again on connectionism and Thorndikes cat studies, it is important to note the results he obtained. He hypothesized that if a cat was video display insight he would light upon an unconnected drop in the learning curve and if the cat was using runnel and geological fault it would show gradual curves. Thorndike found that cats did use trial and error learning because his results concluded gradual curves. He supported this by saying that the reasoning is due to the fact that cats made connections between the puzzle box and the ways of escaping. This supported his idea of stimulus-response relationships, more so, all of the ideology behind his three laws. The law of effect would state that the cat escaped in a certain way thus creating a satisfying reward. The c at would then use this same method of escape, the law of recency. By doing this time and time again the cat strengthened the stimulus-response connection therefore showing the law of exercise. Interestingly B.F. Skinner would reformulate Thorndikes methodology and ideology in order to create what he called operant conditioning. Essentially, Thorndike created a concept that was not only reflected his theories but proved to be fundamentally important to gain insight into other areas of psychology.The next area of significant contribution by Edward Thorndike in the field of psychology was big(p) learning. Thorndike was interested in constructing a system in which he could measure intelligence among adults. Shorty after his research began in this area, in the year of 1903, Thorndike, accompanied by his student, were able to successfully measure intelligence. From this they were able to expand into more detailed oriented techniques that would set the stage for the modern intelligence te sts which we use today.During macrocosm War I, Thorndike worked hand in hand with the linked States Army in order to contrive of system that would establish qualifications of new recruits. These tests would be known as of import and Beta, the true precursor to the modern day ASVAB tests. During World War I, alpha tests were administered to those who the Army believed knew how to read patch Beta tests were administered to those who lack literacy. These test used primarily pictures accompanied with graphs, both of which could be easily assessed. (Indiana University, 2007)Based off Thorndikes original tests, he created for the United States Army, came his greater detailed and directed intelligence tests of the 1920s. Thorndike was quoted as saying Instruction should pursue specified, socially useful goals. (Joncich, 1968). In access to that being said he also believed that learning didnt draw to diminish until the age of 35 and from that only at a rate at 1 percent per year, whi ch by looking at is well into adulthood. Therefore this would explain his reasoning behind why he would get to study adult learning. Referring back to Thorndikes intelligence tests of the 1920s, came directive tests, similar to what those he was referring to in above referenced quote. This test is known as CAVD which stands for completion, arithmetic, vocabulary, and directions test. Additional, latter research had shown the speed and accuracy of which a undivided is capable of learning declines not the actual ability to learn, as Thorndike thought. (Thorndike, 1928)In advertizeing the discussion on intelligence tests, Thorndike went another step further to state that there are three types of intelligence courseing. This would include abstract intelligence, mechanical intelligence and social intelligence. Abstract intelligence is encompassed with 4 sub-areas which are stature, width, area and speed. According to the University of Indiana, altitude is the complexity or difficult y of tasks one can perform, width is referred to as the variety of tasks of a given difficulty, area as a function of width and altitude and speed as the number of task one can complete in a given time. All of which, when looked at as a whole, make up one of the 4 sub-areas of intelligence.On the other hand mechanical intelligence is knowing the relationship an object lens has to its environment and how it operate in that environment. Finally, social intelligence is more true(a) forward by stating that the individual has the capability of performing well in its surroundings on a interpersonal level. As a whole, Thorndikes in-depth advancement that included his many classes of intelligence was what actually created an opposition to his work. An opposing view to his intelligence theory was illustrated another well-known psychologist, Charles Spearmen. Spearmen sparked a debate that intelligence is not made up of many factors but earlier on one. He referred to this one-dimensional factor as g.In assenting to adult learning, it is also important to look at Thorndikes other attributions to learning. An influential come on that Thorndike took to learning was his theory of rewards and punishments. Thorndikes laws of learning, that were mentioned and explained earlier, are very closely correlated with how Thorndike describes rewards and punishments. Thorndikes early views look at stimulus and responses in the manner that one strengthens connections while the other diminishes connections. However, Thorndikes later understandings showed that this was actually incorrect. He then reasoned that punishments do not get weaker as reward connections get stronger. plane st driftr, Thorndike mentioned that severe response will actually increase the chance that an undesired response will reoccur at another point in time. This is completely contradictory of his previous thoughts on stimulus and response and a perfect example of how the field of psychology rapidly changes. In addition to being centre on theories of learning, Thorndike was also very concerned with the ways statistics were measured and recorded. It was the extravagance for his book called An Introduction to the Theory of Mental and Social Measurements. In addition to this book, Thorndike started the first course at a higher education civilize to offer educational measurement. To Thorndike, everything could be measured, very similar to how a mathematician would look at math problems. From his course and his book, Thorndike pioneered the use of description and numbers in psychology which later means of measurement would follow and expand upon. fundamentally this work is yet another one of Thorndikes major(ip) evolutionary contributions to the field of psychology.In addition to Thorndikes movement on learning came his approach to human differences. He concluded that although humans may seem alike, they are variant in basically every aspect. He was quoted saying It is useless to secern the attributes in which men have been found to differ, for there is not trait in which they do not differ (Thorndike, 1911). Psychology essentially involve to go in the direction of individualism, specifically looking at each persons mind not the mind as a whole. Thorndike even went further with this school of thought to explain it in a rationale on how it relates to universal learning. The practical consequences of the fact of individual differences is that every general law of teaching has to be applied with consideration of the particular personthe responses of children to any stimulus will not be invariable like the responses of atoms of hydrogen or the filings of iron, but will vary with their individual capacities, interests, and previous experience (Thorndike, 1906). essentially it all boils down to genetics and the inequalities that humans face.Along with Edward Thorndikes key theoretical beliefs come his everlasting impressions through the vast number of books he wrote , especially the books that referenced his view of learning. Thorndike is noted with writing three different books which would aid educational facilitators in their classroom. These books go on to illustrate the uses of words and the reasons words are used in the English language. He felt that his attend of words need to be stored and are essential while other only need to be understood temporarily, then forgotten.In addition to his three educational books for teachers there are also several other books that appeared earlier and are still an influential part of psychology today. Even though each of these works were mentioned earlier in this paper, it is still bouncy to mention them from a reference standpoint. Thorndikes other books include Educational Psychology (1903), Introduction to the Theory of Mental and Social Measurements (1904), The Elements of Psychology (1905), and Animal Intelligence (1911). Although this is not a full comprehensive list of all of Thorndikes works, it is a list that references his more influential works on the field of psychology.As touched upon throughout this paper, Edward Thorndike has a legacy that will continue to animated on in the field of psychology many years to come. spirit at his influence in learning alone is enough to see how influential he was and still is. A great example is how his stimulus response relationship, in regards to the law of effect, would be used as a language for other influential psychologists of their time such as Clark hull and B.F. Skinner. They evolved his theory of the law of effect and essentially fused it into what they refer to as a reinforcement theory of learning. Even when looking at the broader desktop of connectionism, his major contribution to psychology, which merely remained unchanged throughout his career.Edward Thorndike is an individual that is sometimes hard to fit historically into one distinct area of psychology. His initial animal research studys practiced characteristics which essentially lead to Watsonian behaviorism. He is an individual that influenced a wide range of other prominent psychologist that later followed in time. In addition it could be clearly seen that through Thorndikes animal studies and his findings on associations and connectionism, how later Psychologist such as Watson would pioneer behaviorism. However, Thorndike will remain to be considered as a comparative psychologist because of his contributions when looked at in a wider scope, (intelligence tests, learning, education and animal studies).As with any influential person comes criticism and Edward Thorndike is no different. As mentioned by the New World Encyclopedia, Thorndike faced two major criticisms. The first is the fact that Thorndikes approach restricted psychology by restricting behavior solely to the peripheral events of stimulus and response elements. In dismissing mental events, Thorndike also ignored the central mediation of stimulus and response bonds (New World Encyclopedia Online, 2010). What this is saying is that Thorndike focused primarily on behavior in regards to events in the environment that are of little importance. He based his stimulus and response relationships off these minute events. In addition, he also failed to bonk how important those bonds can be. The second critism according to New World Encyclopedia is in regards to his behaviorist theories, specifically the concern of reductionism. Reductionism is when the nature of complex things is cut back to the nature of sums of simpler or more fundamental things (New World Encyclopedia Online, 2010). In correlation to Thorndikes theories of behaviorism, the mind, behavior, and stimuli in the environment are all interrelated.Thorndike had also proposed many influential techniques and methods that would influence schools and universities till this day. Thorndikes continued efforts on the improvements of institutions, allowed them to fundamentally maximise the learning process. In addition to his recognition in academic institutions, he was also recognized with many prestigious honors and awards in the areas of American and worldwide science and education. However, one of his more prestigious awards is the Butler Medal. This was an award issued by the university where he practiced and formulated his theories of great influence. This award was given in recognition of his exceptionally significant contributions to the general problem of the measurement of human faculty and to the applications of such measurements to education (Joncich, 1968). Simply that goes to show and summarizes perfectly what a historical and contributional individual Edward Thorndike was to the field of Psychology.Throughout this paper we focused on a wide range of ideas and theories that Edward Thorndike contributed to Psychology as a whole. Since this paper went into specific detail and elaborated on a wide range of topics, it is essential to go back and summarize the basic overview of Edward Thorndikes learning theories and contributions. In an effort to bring together what was talked about and to bridge the gaps of uncertainty and or confusion the reader may have.As the paper progressed we looked at Thorndikes trial and error learning. How learning needs to occur in steps rather than all at once. This then lead us directly into several of Thorndikes laws which included the law of exercise, law of effect, and the law of readiness. The more you do something the more likely you will continue to do that behavior thus the law of effect and exercise. In order to enact on the previous two law the individual has to be ready to do so, thus, known as the law of readiness. We also went on to talk about a person as an individual and how people need to be looked at in an individualistic manner. This further correlated directly with how Thorndike proposed educational institutions should function. Finally, understanding the impact Thorndike has on some of the pioneering for ms of intelligence testing both in the United States Army and in the classroom. Nevertheless, not forgetting the work Thorndike established in regards to the first ways to measure mental and social theories. A fundamental stepping perdition that latter systems of measure would follow and build upon.Hopefully now it could be clearly seen why Edward L. Thorndike was such a contributional and influential individual to the field of psychology. Throughout his 55 year career researching and studying psychology, Thorndike wrote over 500 books and articles. More so, he wrote in a diverse way which encompassed ideas such as learning in fish, systems for measurement of mental and social data, and even right down to the aesthetic quality of urban life. This was all in addition to his work with cats in a puzzle box regarding trail and error learning, his research pertaining to the development of his book called Educational Psychology, and educational experience as a whole.To say the least, Ed ward Thorndike was far from a one dimensional person. He was taught by the great William James and J.M. Cattell. He taught scholars like Walter Bingham, R.L. Thorndike and L.S. Hollingsworth. nearly importantly made a lasting impression on individuals such as David Wechsler and R.B. Cattell as well as you and I. Now looking at some of those names and the life that Thorndike made for himself, it could be understood why he is known as one of the greatest psychologist of his time. More importantly, paving material the way for a better understanding on how and why his work has influenced and is still a part of the modern field of psychology.On August 9, 1949 Edward L. Thorndike passed away from old age. He left behind his widowed wife, Elizabeth Moulton who he wed in 1900 and his four children. This was not only a tragicomical day for his family but for the field of psychology as well. They both knew that they anomic a husband, a father and very significant scholar to the field of p sychology. His legacy will never be forgotten and his contributions will continue to live on. Hopefully this paper has captured your understanding of his everlasting legacy.