What was the impetus for Thorndike’s research?
We should not accept anecdotes as fact, nor should we assume that animals beahving in a particular way are doing so for intelligent reasons

What was the skeptisism that Thorndike had?
was driven by a belief that the intellectual ability of animals could be properly assessed only through systematic investigation

What was the method used for Thorndike’s research?
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to reach the food, a cat had to learn to escape from a box

there was no improvement of performance aswould be expected if the cat had experienced a "flash of insight" about how to solve the problem

It seemed as though the response that worked was gradually strengthened, while responses that did not work were gradually weakened
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Law of effect
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S-R theory of learning

behaviors leading to a satisfying state of affairs are strengthened or stamped in, while behaviors leading to an unsatisfying or annoying state of affairs are weakened or stamped out

The consequence of a behavior determines whether that behavior will be repeated
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How is Skinner’s conception of operant conditioning similar to Darwin’s theory of natural selection?
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Behavior varies

selection deals with reinforced behaviors being more likely to occur,and punished behaviors being less likely to occur

So, behavior patterns are gradually transformed, and this process can generate entirely novel behaviors
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How is operant conditioning defined?
A type of learning in which the future probability of a behavior is affected by its consequences

What is the three-term contingency?  (discriminative stimulus/Sd)
a stimulus in the presence of which responses are reinforced and in the absence of which they are not reinforced

What is the three-term contingency?  (Reinforcer or punisher/Sr,O)
the outcome that is contingent upon the response

What is the three-term contingency?  (process)
Sd followed by a R leads to an Sr,O