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Question

What is Thorndike's law of effect?

The correct answer is
Behaviours followed by favourable consequences become more likely and that behaviours followed by unfavourable consequences become less likely to occur

Thorndike's Law of Effect Explained

Edward Thorndike's Law of Effect is a fundamental principle in learning theory. It describes how the likelihood of a specific behavior changes based on its consequences.

The core idea is:

  • Behaviors followed by satisfying or favorable consequences tend to be repeated (become stronger).
  • Behaviors followed by annoying or unfavorable consequences tend to be avoided (become weaker).

This directly corresponds to option B, which states: "Behaviors followed by favourable consequences become more likely and that behaviours followed by unfavourable consequences become less likely to occur". This principle laid the groundwork for later theories like operant conditioning.

Option 1 describes operant behavior (Skinner). Option 3 relates to associative learning or classical conditioning. Option 4 describes respondent behavior.

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Important Questions from Principles and theories of learning

  1. Which of the following does not come under primary laws
    of learning?

  2. "Private speech leads to self regulated Behaviour." Which Psychologist viewed this strongly ?
  3. 'Collective Monologue leads to egocentric speech'. Which psychologist viewed this strongly ?
  4. Arrange the theorists in ascending order of their contribution to the theories of Learning:

    A. E.L. Thorndike

    B. Ivan P. Pavlov

    C. Albert Bandura

    D. Clark Hull

    E. Edward C. Tolman

    Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

  5. Match List I with List II

    List I

    List II

    A.

    Skinner, B.F

    I.

    Behavioral

    B.

    Maslow, Deci

    II.

    Social Cognitive

    C.

    Weiner, Graham

    III.

    Cognitive

    D.

    Locke and Latham, Bandura

    IV.

    Humanistic

    Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

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