Reading Activity Week #7 (due Tuesday)

3.1: Thorndike was a behavioral researcher that is known for his “puzzle boxes”. He did an experiment with cats that tested how they learned to escape the box. As the cats learned, and time went on, they got faster at it. This is a great contribution from him about ‘Trial and Error’. The trial and error is the first thing I will remember. It is a scientific way of thinking about regular human behaviors. This also was a great way to study animal intelligence. He also could be credited for the ‘Law of Effect’ and the ‘Law of Recency’. I will remember each of these laws. The Law of Effect states that we do not repeat the behaviors that were aversive or unsuccessful, also called ‘Stamping Out’. The Law of Recency says that the most recent behavior will occur more often. For example, the last phone number you got, you probably would remember more than the first out of several.

3.2: Prior to reading this section, I knew a decent amount of information about him, mainly because of what a prolific researcher he was. This was explained a lot during Introduction to Psychology courses. I already knew about the salivation experiment. This was when he introduced stimuli to dogs and measured their salivation based on certain stimuli. However, I did not know about the ‘Pavlov Pouch’. Which was the procedure to isolate part of a dogs stomach. I also did not know about the term, Salient. This is when the stimuli is noticeable due to the environment. For example, the stimuli of an alarm clock could be tuned out if your TV is much louder than the alarm tone. Basically, I knew the gist of procedures and experiments he did, but it was definitely a good refresher and I also learned a few new things.

I find that Pavlov was more interesting. I think his experiments are ones that we don’t appreciate until we realize that we can use his findings to manipulate behaviors. With the Conditioned stimuli, Unconditioned stimuli, Conditioned response, and Unconditioned response, we can think about behaviors in a more scientifically way.

Section 3.1

1.) Edward Thorndike was an earlier researcher in the field of Psychology. One of his earlier experiments involved trapping a cat in a box and studying what series of behaviors they elicited in order to release themselves from the box. Thorndike was mainly interested in studying animal intelligence.

2.) Two big contributions I believe Thorndike made to the science of behavior are trial and error learning and the Law of Effect. Trial and error learning is the idea that an animal or individual will continue to repeat behavior until they perform the correct one that elicits the desirable consequence they are striving to achieve. Law of Effect is similar to trial and error learning, but different because this reinforces behaviors or responses when they are followed by a positive outcome the association becomes “stamped in”. The law of effect works in the opposite direction as well. When a behavior has an aversive outcome, the association will be “stamped out”.

3.) The first thing I will remember from this chapter is Thorndike’s experiment with cats. I will remember this because first of all, I love cats. Second of all, the video was a good visual aid and will make it easier for me to emit a remembering response. The second thing I will remember from this chapter is trial and error learning. I will remember this concept because it is something that is used in everyday life. Many times you don’t even realize when you are emitting the behavior of trial and error learning. The third thing I will remember in this chapter is to create legitimate graphs. Thorndike is a well-known researcher and will be studied for the rest of history. Yet, he did not create a well thought out graph and over the years people has to add to it in order for it to make sense.

Section 3.2

1.) Prior to reading the section about Pavlov I already knew that he is famous for his dog salivation experiment. He trained dogs how to salivate when they heard the sound of a bell. He did this by associating meat powder on their tongues every time a bell was rung. When they would ring the bell this would cause the dog to salivate due to the association they had formed.

2.) After reading about Pavlov I understand that he was studying much more than just conditioned responses, stimuli, etc. He was interested in the digestive process that went along with these things. Experimental neurosis is a concept that was introduced to me from the readings. It was interesting that he believed not all dogs would respond the same way to the same stimulus based on their aggression level. I also did not know he studied blinking in rabbits.

3.) I found Pavlov to be more interesting based on the readings. Pavlov’s section went into a lot more detail and provided me with information that I hadn’t learned before. Even though Pavlov is introduced at the very beginning on Psychology classes, this was definitely new and exciting material to read.

Section 3.1
1)Thorndike was a psychologist who focused his studies on animal intelligence. He emitted a behavior of using puzzle boxes to measure the decreased amount of time a cat used to escape from the box, and this decrease in time used was correlated to the animal’s intelligence and learning from the previous test. He referred to the cat’s exponentially faster escape from the box as methodological construct for intelligence. He emitted a behavior of developing the Law of Effect which incorporated the “trial and error” learning method. The cat would emit a variety of behaviors until it obtained the desired reinforcer of escape. The cat would eventually associate the last emitted behavior with obtaining the reinforcer of escape. He also developed the Law of Recency and Law of Exercise. The Law of Recency states that the most recent response is the most likely to reoccur. The Law of Exercise states that through repetition the associations are strengthened.

2)Thorndike’s work had a major impact on the field of psychology, and influenced later psychologists. His work involving the study of animal intelligence can be applied to the study of human intelligence, as well. There are examples of humans emitting learning behaviors using the Law of Effect, Law of Recency and Law of Exercise just as animals do.

3)I will emit a behavior of remembering three concepts from this section of the chapter. (1) The first concept I will emit a behavior of remembering is the Law of Effect. This law states that through a “trial and error” learning method, organisms eventually learn how to obtain the desired reinforcer after emitting a variety of behaviors. (2) The second concept I will emit a behavior of remembering is the Law of Recency, which states that the most recent response is the most likely to reoccur. I will remember this concept because an example of this law is emitting a variety of behaviors trying to start a car, and when the car eventually starts, an organism is most likely to emit the last behavior emitted that resulted in the desired outcome. (3) The third concept I will emit a behavior of remembering is the Law of Exercise. This law states that through repetition the associations are strengthened. An example of this law is emitting the same behavior of pumping the gas pedal three times before the car will start every time you emit a behavior of starting the car.

Section 3.2
1) Prior to emitting a behavior of reading this section of the chapter, I had learned about Pavlov in other psychology courses. I knew he was not really interested in psychology, but the digestive functioning of animals. It was unintentional that through his studies of dogs and their salivary glands that he made a major contribution to the field of psychology concerning classical conditioning. His famous experiment of the dog salivating at the sound of the bell is well-known to those in and out of the field of psychology. His studies led to the concepts of unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response.

2) After emitting a reading behavior of this section, I learned that Pavlov was praised for inventing the Pavlov Pouch. He emitted a behavior of isolating a portion of the dog’s stomach so ingested food would not contaminate the dog’s saliva. His surgical discoveries and accomplishments allowed him to prove that salivation occurs before an organism emits a behavior of consuming food. I also emitted a behavior of learning that Pavlov emitted a training behavior of the dogs to discriminate between circles and squares. He trained the dogs to emit a salivating behavior when shown a circle because there was a delivery of food, and no salivation when presented with a square because it was associated with no delivery of food. He then emitted a behavior of studying the different reactions of the dogs, unresponsiveness and aggressiveness when the dog was unable to emit a discriminative behavior between the shapes.

3) I emitted a behavior of finding Pavlov more interesting because he accidentally made a major contribution to a field of study he wasn’t interested in. He emitted a behavior of accomplishing many things that contributed to the fields of psychology, medicine, and anatomy and physiology. His behavior of emitting advanced surgical accomplishments were more interesting to me than studying how long it takes a cat to emit a behavior of escaping from a puzzle box. I also emit a behavior of liking dogs more than cats.

3.1
Thorndike was an early behavioral researcher who was especially interested in studying animals. One of his best-known experiments involved observing the way a cat tried to free itself from a box by pulling certain strings and levers. I think his main contribution was the fact that we don’t just learn from doing things the correct way, but also from our mistakes. I will remember 1.) the law of effect, 2.) the law of recency, 3.) and that we often times learn through trial and error. The law of effect and law of recency are easy for me to remember because of the activity and because the definition is already in the word. I will remember the trial and error theory because the cat study elicited an example of it that was easy to remember.

3.2
Prior to reading this article, I had heard of Pavlov’s dog study and I was familiar with the concept of a “conditioned stimulus” and a “conditioned response.” I was, however, unaware of how to actually distinguish between conditioned and unconditioned responses in real-life examples, but this article did a good job of teaching how to do that.

I think Thorndike was more interesting to read about because I’d never heard of him before, but I really liked his idea that we learn from trial and error. I feel like a lot of people need to make mistakes in order to do things correctly in the end, and that is basically what he was describing.

Section 3.1 talked about the research done by Edward Thorndike. Thorndike was an early American researcher who studied the learning behavior/ intelligence of cats. Thorndike created what he called a puzzle box. He would place a cat into this puzzle box and observe how long it took the cat to escape. He would do numerous trials of this experiment in order to measure the cat’s intelligence, which was measured by the amount of time it took for the cat to escape. As long as the cat increasingly got faster at escaping then Thorndike would say the cat was learning. Although Thorndike’s graphs were not well detailed, he still contributed many things to our understanding of animal intelligence. First there is the Law of Effect, which states “when behaviors or responses are followed by positive outcome, that association is stamped in”. On the other hand when a behavior is followed by a negative or aversive outcome that behavior will be stamped out and not repeated. Related to the Law of Effect is his idea of “trial and error”, which basically says that some trials will lead to success and the behavior present in those trials will most likely be repeated. Thorndike suggested two other laws of learning: Law of Recency and Law of Exercise. The Law of Recency suggests, “the most recent response is the most likely to reoccur”. This is because the success is attributed to the most recent behavior performed. The Law of Exercise suggests “through repetition the associations are strengthened” Thorndike’s research on learning behavior will contribute greatly to later psychological research.

Section 3.2 discusses the well-known Pavlov. Prior to reading this section I knew that Pavlov did research that contributed to our understanding of learning behavior/operant conditioning (I was familiar with the terms conditioned response, conditioned stimulus, unlearned response, and unlearned stimulus). I knew that he had studied dogs and measured their salivating behaviors. Something I found interested but have learned before and forgot was how Pavlov’s research was broader than just operant conditioning. Pavlov actually started out doing surgically experimentation on the digestive system of dogs ,which led his interests on the salvation gland which is part of the digestive system. This led to his idea of a conditioned reflex which most people associate with learning behavior research. However, Pavlov did much more this conditioned reflex research. What I had not known before was that Pavlov was interested in using his conditioned reflex research in better understand brain function such as the function of neurons.

I found Pavlov’s research more interesting. I think this is mostly because his research was more than just learning behavior research, which is what I had always thought of his research as. In truth it is a lot more. I find it fascinating that his idea of conditioned reflect lead to his understanding of many things including learning behavior but also including neural brain functioning.

Section 3.1
Thorndike was a behavioral researcher who was interested in animal intelligence. He emitted a study observing how cats learned to manimulate a door release mechanism. His findings let him to develop the Law of Effect. His other contributions also include the Law of Recency and the Law of Exercise.
Three things I will remember after emitting the behavior of reading this section are
1)The Lawe of Effect, that after "trial and error the successful attempts will be stamped in and the unsuccessful attempts will be stamped out.
2)The Law of Recency, that the most recent response is the most likely to reoccur again.
3)The Law of Exercie, that the associations are strengthened through repitition.
I will remember these things because of the cat learnning to open the door example made it easy to understand and I found them very interesting and easy to relate to everyday life.

3.2
Prior to emitting the behavior of reading this section I knew that Pavlov had researched conditioning by measuring dogs saliva when a bell was rang, which had been associated with being fed. After emitting the behavior of reading this section i learned more about his research, such as the different responses some dogs had, and that he also used shapes to get the dogs to salivate.

I found Thorndike's research more interesting, I think mostly because I hadn't heard of him or his research before and I have heard of Pavlov's research in many different classes.

3.1
Thorndike was a researcher interested in how smart animals are. He made a box that was puzzle and the cats had to figure out how to escape. His contributions were making people realize that we all can be conditioned to certain behaviors. He also sparked an interest in other researchers to continue further researching what he was doing. We can learn from our past behaviors. And everything living mammal has some sort of intelligence. The three thinks I will emit to memory from this section are: 1. Trial and error learning. This type of learning behavior happens all the time in my life without me knowing it. With a lot of aversive things in my life I continue to try until it starts working properly and I never noticed what type of learning I was emitting. 2. The Law of Recency. How true is it that the most recent behavior emitted will be the one we remember. I will emit that behavior because it is the one I remember or can recall the most about. 3. Law of Exercise. I laughed when I emitted the behavior of reading this at first because I thought to myself “They are going to teach us that we need to work out more.” But in a way they correlate because this law states that through repetition the associations are strengthened. So in a way, the more we emit a behavior the more ‘buff’ we get in emitting that behavior again.

3.2

Before emitting the behavior of reading section 3.2 I knew about Pavlov and his dogs. He came up with classical conditioning and made the dogs salivate when just hearing a bell thinking that food was coming. He wanted to see what really caused the dogs to salivate. I did emit the behavior of learning that Pavlov actually emitted a behavior of a surgical process that involved the isolation of the saliva ducts, cutting a small incision in the dog’s cheek and rerouting the duct to the exterior. This way he could attach small test tubes to the salivary ducts. I didn’t know he actually emitted a surgical process in his study. This made is information seem even more valid to me.

I think Pavlov is more interesting because he did emit the behavior of doing minor surgery on the saliva ducts. And he put his information in terms that we all can understand. He made it seem like it all goes in order and as a consequence that makes it easier for me to remember and apply.

Edward Thorndike was a researcher who mainly studied animal intelligence. Based on the information in this section I think his research contributed to problem solving and learning. His research on animals can most likely be generalized to humans as well. His puzzle boxes illustrated that animals were capable of figuring out problems and then solving them. Once they figuring out how to solve a particular problem they would remember it. I will remember Thorndike's puzzle boxes because the research he did with them was used to explain other concepts in the chapter. I will remember the Law of Exercise just because I think it has a fairly simple definition and it is easy for me to relate this law to pretty much everything we do and earn. I will also remember the Law of Recency for the same reason. I think every concept in this chapter is easily relatable to behavior we engage in every day.

Prior to reading section 3.2 I knew about Pavlov's experiment with his dogs and how he just sort of happened upon what we now know as classical conditioning. One thing I didn't know was that Pavlov also did research with dogs and had them discriminate between different shapes. They would learn that one shape meant food while the other shape meant no food, and the dogs would emit different behavior, either aggression or complete unresponsiveness.

Between Thorndike and Pavlov I would have to choose Pavlov as more interesting. I think they both did interesting research, but I think Pavlov did more types of experiments. He experimented with the dogs and the meat and he also introduced shapes so the dogs could associate them with food as well. It just seems Pavlov expanded his research more than Throndike.

3.1
Edward Thorndike was a behavioral psychologist particularly interested in the intelligence of animals and ways to measure that intelligence. The way Thorndike measured this was by building puzzles for cats and then seeing how long it took for them to gt out of the box. After multiple trials he saw that the time it took to get out of the box was faster as the cat had more experience with the box.
Something that Thorndike discovered that helped contribute to the science of behavior was a sense of trial and error. This is when the cat would emit multiple behaviors until it was reinforced by a behavior emitted. The cat would then associate the last behavior emitted with the particular reward associated with that behavior.
Three things that I will remember about this chapter section would be how learning mechanisms can be generalizd to higher order species, how to read graphs by Thorndike, and the law of excercise. These things will be easy to remember because we haven't looked at any of these concepts yet.
3.2
Prior to reading about Pavlov all that I knew about him was that he did some stimuli experiments on dogs by collecting saliva. The way he did this was by associating food with a bell and conditioned the dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell and to not even have any food preent during the experiment. After reading the chapter section I learned more about Pavlov by learning about the shapes they used to condition the dogs and then slowly changed the shapes into the other shape and the dog couldn't decide on what stimulus to salivate to which was pretty interesting.
Between reading about Thorndike and Pavlov I decided that I found the information about Pavlov more interesting because it had more information about conditioned and unconditioned responses and stimulus which I found pretty interesting. They were both good pieces of reading but I liked Pavlov better.

3.1- Edward Thorndike is a researcher who devoted practice to understanding the intelligence of various animals. Edward Thorndike is known for his study of the cat in the box. Thorndike observed the amount of time it would take the cat to learn how to get out of the box. After recording his findings over the years, Thorndike then developed what is known now as the "Law of Effect". This basically meant that the cat would succeed through trial and error.

Thorndike’s contributions of this behavior were that we could better understand learning and problem solving through trial and error. Thorndike then went on to develop the idea of the "Law of Recency", which states that the most recent response in a situation is the most likely response to reoccur. Thorndike’s' "Law of Exercise" states that through the practice of repetition, these associations with learning behaviors are more likely to be strengthened.

The first thing that I found interesting about this chapter was the pictures of Thorndike’s puzzle boxes. These were not the best made, but they served well and were made from discarded hardware and boxes that Thorndike found in back alleys.

The second thing that I found interesting about this chapter is Thorndike’s graph to support his research findings. He lacked a title, and various labels and numbers dealing with the x and y axis. I remembered this in particular because I feel that it would be impossible to share your findings if no one else could read the graph.

The third thing that I found interesting about this chapter is the "Law of Recency". I have been in the situation many times where I have been trying to get an electronic or various other items to work. Once I figured out what was the correct procedure to this success, I followed my footsteps back to the last behavior and steps I emitted, thus believing that my most recent response was what made me successful. This was interesting because I can relate it to every day life.

3.2-
Before reading this section over Pavlov I have known about his work with dogs and their response in salivating to food or either a bell, and most times paired with both.

After reading this chapter I seemed to think that I really did not know much about Pavlov after all. For example, I did not know about the Pavlov Pouch. A pouch designed so that food would not enter the dog’s stomach so that ingested food would not enter and contaminate the saliva. I did not know that Pavlov originally was only studying digestive practices in dogs. Beyond this, I have previously begun to touch the surface in my psychology classes about many of the things mentioned about Pavlov.

I definitely find Pavlov more interesting. Although I think both are interesting, the fact that Pavlov did surgical experiments with the animals that he worked on was fascinating to me. I think that Pavlov stepped further into something much forbidden with his experiments, and that is what makes him so interesting.

3.1

a) Edward Thorndike was a psychologist who’s main research focus was on animal intelligence. He is credited with the “puzzle box” contraption to measure cats intelligence. The box would measure the intelligence by timing how long it took the cat to escape (a short escape time showed learning and intelligence).

b) I think Thorndike’s major contributions to the study of intelligence were the Law of Effect, the Law of Recency, and the Law of Exercise. In the Law of Effect, he recognized that animals use a type of “trial and error” process to get out of the aversive box. We, as humans, use trial and error all the time. Thorndike was really the one that put a term and explanation to a phenomena that we experience in daily life. The Law of Recency simply states that the last (or more recent) response will be the one that is reinforced and therefore reoccurring. Thorndike’s Law of Exercise states that repetition will cause the associations between behavior and consequence to strengthen.

c) The three things that I will take away from this chapter are Thorndike’s three laws. All three (Law of Recency, Law of Exercise, and Law of Effect) are rather common sense, but I will remember the term associated with the behaviors they explain.

3.2

a) Before reading this chapter on Pavlov, I already had an established knowledge of his practices. This Russian physiologist won the Nobel Prize for researching a dog’s digestive processes. Pavlov and his dogs were the classic example when discussing classical condition in all my previous psychology classes. Turning a neutral stimulus in to a conditioned stimulus and gauging the responses throughout the process were familiar territory for me. After reading through this chapter I did learn that Pavlov’s research did not start as a psychological experiment. I was surprised to learn that he was really focused on the anatomical perspective with no regard to the mind to begin with.

b) After these readings, I found Thorndike more interesting. I only say this because I have a solid knowledge base of Pavlov prior to these readings. I am a huge fan of the “trial and error” method so this also caused my interested to spike when reviewing Thorndike.

Section 3.1
Edward Thorndike was a behavioral researcher. He was particularly interested in animals and their intelligence. He used these contraptions called “puzzle boxes” in order to research the intelligence of animals. He would put a cat in this box and the idea was that the cat would learn which behavior (lifting a lever) would open the door so the cat would use it next time it is in the box. As shown in the section, the first time the cat was in, it took 30 seconds to get out. The next time it took 20 seconds. He also was the man responsible for “The Law of Effect,” “The Law of Recency,” and “The Law of Exercise.”
These are the three things I will remember from this section. “The Law of Effect” is says that when a behavior is met with a favorable outcome it is “stamped in.” It also goes on to say that behaviors met with an unfavorable outcome are “stamped out.” “The Law of Recency” says that the most recent behavior emitted is the one that will probably occur. “The Law of Exercise” says that when a behavior is repeated its associations are made stronger. I will remember these things because they make the most sense to me in this section. They are easy to remember.
Section 3.2
All I really knew about Pavlov before reading the section is that he was the guy that did the experiment where he put meat in front of a dog and the dog salivated and then rang a bell while giving the dog meat and eventually the dog would salivate when the bell rang.
After reading, I found out that he actually started out as a physiologist and studied digestion. He also first thought of the conditioned reflex (the fact that the dog would salivate to the bell) to be a sort of psychic reflex that he called a psychic secretion.
I think I like Thorndike more because I like his box invention and the fact that animals adapt their behaviors to get what they need is really cool to me. I also feel that Pavlov in a way expanded on Thorndike’s findings and he couldn’t have done that unless Thorndike had done his work so if anything it’s just to give credit to the man who led others to find out more things about behavior.

1) After reading section 3.1, I learned Edward Thorndike was mostly interested in animal intelligence and is famous for creating a puzzle box to examine cats’ intelligence. He was an early researcher that trapped the cats in a box to see how long it took them to figure a way out of the box. When the cats would go into the box, it would elicit them to frantically try to find a way out. The cat would emit multiple behaviors until it the door was opened. The experiment would be repeated and Thorndike recorded how long each trial took.
2) Thorndike’s contributions to the science of behavior were very significant. Thorndike developed the idea of “trial and error” and the Law of Effect. The Law of Effect says when you receive a positive outcome, the association is stamped in. He realized the cats would take less and less time to get out of the box so, through trial and error, the cat was learning. The cat would slowly learn which behavior elicited the door to open through trial and error. This behavior would be repeated more frequently and much quicker as the experiment went on. This is important because this concept can also be applied to humans. He also coined the Law of Recency (most recent response is the most likely to reoccur) and the Law of Exercise (associations get stronger with repetition).
3) I will recall that Thorndike created the puzzle box for the cats. I have learned that multiple times in college so through the Law of Exercise, I will recall this very easily. Another piece of information I will remember easily is the trial and error. This was taught to me in elementary school, so I have had it in my head for many years which emits an easier memory behavior. I will also remember the already mentioned Law of Exercise which means the more someone sees something, the stronger the association gets.
4) Section 3.2 introduces Pavlov. Prior to reading the section what did you know about Pavlov? After reading the chapter what information did you find that may have added to what you already knew about him?
5) Who did you find more interesting Pavlov or Thorndike? Why?
3.2
Prior to this class, I knew about Pavlov and his association with dogs salivating. I also knew that he had coined the terms unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and conditioned response. I had heard about the experiment many times in previous classes but didn’t really know anything else about Pavlov. I thought I had heard about him winning a Nobel Prize and I assumed it was for his dog research because that is all I knew about him. After I emitted a reading behavior of this section, I learned that Pavlov was actually a physiologist and was a very well known surgeon. I also emitted the learning behavior that he invented the Pavlov Pouch which isolates a section of the dog’s stomach so saliva wouldn’t be contaminated with food. I had no idea he was so well rounded and I actually had just assumed he was a psychologist. I had no idea he emitted surgical behaviors to study the salivary ducts either so makes me respect him even more.
I personally think Pavlov is more interesting than Thorndike because I have heard of him more so I can relate to it. I feel like Pavlov was a lot more well-rounded and therefore more interesting. Pavlov’s dog is a part of pop culture for a reason. It can be applied to a variety of situations and people, including me, find it very interesting.

Edward Thorndike started his research by studying animal intelligence with the use of puzzle boxes. His research lead him to the “trial and error” method where he dove in deeper and realized that positive outcomes of these trials stamp in the “winning” behavior and stamp out aversive behaviors. I believe he contributed knowledge in the outcomes of consequences. He helped show that aversive and wanted outcomes shape the target behavior. In my life, I believe these help me understand how to teach something or learn something. If you want a behavior to continue, it is most important to reward the good behavior.
The three things I will remember from this chapter are; the use of trial and error, Thorndike’s starting subject and that a lot of researchers make their own equipment. I will remember the use of trial and error here because it helps show that you really learn more by doing something until you get it right rather than just having someone hand you the key. Thorndike started out by wanting to study animal intelligence and ended up contributing a major theory into psychology. I remember that he used his own equipment when setting up his experiment, which represents the inventiveness of these researchers. I am not a psychology major but I am a biology major, so this hits home with me in that department.

Prior to reading this chapter, I knew that Pavlov ran experiments with dogs to test their responses to different stimuli. He discovered conditioned and unconditioned responses, etc. After reading about Pavlov, I discovered that he was not a psychologist at all. Which I’m sure I did not know before or I just overlooked it. I learned that he was a noble prize winning surgeon, who just chanced upon one of the most heard of studies in psychology. I found that he used to perform surgeries on dogs which honestly elicits a feeling of nausea in my stomach as I picture the mad butcher in the movie “human centipede.” I’m sure it was all safe and humane but it was still not my favorite thing to read about. His research however, has made a huge impact on the psychological community and there is good reason why this study is so widely known.

I found reading about Pavlov more exciting to read because I found new information I was not aware of before. This new information has enlightened me into the realm of all research. As I said before, I am a biology major who has an interest in psychology and it is nice to hear about someone making such an impact on psychology even though they are not necessarily a psychologist.

3.1 Thorndike was a behavioral researcher who was particularly interested in, and studied, animal intelligence. He is known for his “puzzles boxes” in which he would place cats in to see how well they could learn to escape from them. His contributions to the science of behavior include the Law of Effect, the Law of Recency, and the Law of Exercise. Each of these laws states the basis for “trial and error”, and helped to better reinforce in people’s minds how the trial and error process actually worked. To put it simply, the three things I will remember from this chapter are each of the laws. The Law of Effect, as sounds, states that when a certain behavior is emitted and followed with a positive outcome or reinforcement, the association of that behavior is fortified. The Law of Recency is easy for me to understand because it states that the most recent response is the most likely one to reoccur, which makes sense in trial and error process. And finally, the Law of Exercise states that through repetitions, the associations are strengthened. These three laws make sense to me because it is a simple trial and error process, but with more detail put into each explanation for the behaviors.

3.2 Before reading this chapter the three things I had known about Pavlov were: he was associated with inventing the term “classical conditioning”, he primarily used dogs as his subjects when testing out this conditioning, and that previously to being a psychologist, Pavlov was a physiologist. Some information that I read that has added to my knowledge of Pavlov are the terms “Pavlov Pouch”, “psychic secretion”, and “experimental neurosis”. Also, I learned that only Pavlov’s work that direct supported Thorndike and Watson was actually promoted in the USA. I found Pavlov more interesting because he dug down deeper into his work. He seemed more interested in WHY the organisms did what they did, not just how they did it. I feel that his research was more extensive and that he went through more trial and error attempts in his findings than Thorndike did. I am not saying I do not have respect for Thorndike, I just feel that Pavlov went further into his research to find answers that no one knew, and this is what truly interested me.

3.1
Thorndike was an early behaviorist. He worked primarily with animals and his focus was on animal intelligence. He studied animal learning with the help of a device of his own invention. It was essentially a wooden box with levers that could be used to escape the box. Some of his contributions included the methodological construct he used to measure learning in his cats. He used the amount of time it took the cat to escape the box on its first try and compared that time with the time it took them after escaping several times. The time here is used to represent learning. Thorndike also introduced the Law of Effect which simply states that a certain behavior will lead to a certain outcome respectively. His Law of Recency also explains why we don't always see superstitious behaviors. This is because the behavior emitted just before the response is the one that is remembered. As the behavior and response are repeated the association grows stronger, this became known as the Law of Exercise. One thing I will remember from this chapter is the use of the time spent escaping the box as a measure of learning because I thought that was a clever way to measure learning where other measures were not workable with cats (self report, surveys, etc.). I will also remember. This memory will also cause me to remember Thorndike's cat box. I will also remember Thorndike's Law of Recency because I find superstitious behaviors funny, so the law that prevents them will be easy for me to remember.

3.2
Prior to reading this chapter I had studied Pavlov extensively in other classes. I knew that he was a Russian Physiologist studying the digestive system, specifically saliva's role in digestion, for which he had won a Nobel Prize. I also knew that his discover of classical conditioning was accidental, yet greatly enriched the field of psychology. I knew of his coining of the terms unconditioned stimulus/response and conditioned stimulus/response, both of which I have a pretty good handle on. There wasn't really anything that added to my knowledge of Pavlov, but I still found it interesting. I think that Pavlov is a more interesting character to study than Thorndike because of his work in other fields, I think his physiological work added more depth and richness to his understanding of psychology.

3.1
I emitted the behavior of learning about Thorndike, whom was a researcher that liked to study animal learning behaviors. He emitted the behavior of contributing much to behavioral sciences because he believed that certain animal learning behaviors mimicked that of how humans might learn. He studied this behavior by using puzzle boxes. He would emit the behavior of putting cats in these puzzle boxes. The cats would elicit an upset response to being put in these boxes. He quickly found out that through trial and error the cats would figure out a way to get out of the box, and remember that when they had to get out again.
After reading the chapter on Thorndike I elicited a learning behavior of three of his main theories that I thought were important:
1) The law of effect states that when behaviors are proceeded with a pleasant outcome, then the association is strengthened
2) The law of recency states that the most recent response is something that will most likely reoccur again.
3) The law of exercise states that repetition strengthens the likelihood of something reoccurring again.
These three terms are important when talking about how humans and animals learn to emit certain behaviors. It is something that occurs and we don’t even realize it happens, but that is how we learn.
3.2
Pavlov was a Russian that emitted the behavior of coming up with conditioned reflexes and making dogs salivate. Previous to this chapter I knew that Pavlov studied dog salvation. I knew that he was partially credited for classical conditioning with unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned response. However, I never knew that he used many different techniques in training these dogs to salivate.
My preference would definitely be with Thorndike, mostly because I really found that emitting the behavior of watching the puzzle box video with the kitty to be a pleasant stimulus. Although, I did think it was cool how Pavlov emitted the behavior of discovering classical conditioning without actually realizing he did that at first.

Edward Thorndike was a scientist interested in animal cognition and how animals form behaviors. More specifically, he was known for his puzzle box. With this box, he would measure the time it took for a cat to escape. The cat would fumble around with the strings located in the box, and when the mechanism for opening had been learned by the cat, the time grew shorter and shorter. Eventually, this lead to several well-known concepts that contributed to behavioral science. First, he developed the idea known as the Law of Effect. A synonym of this would be "trial and error" also. This idea relates specifically to Thorndike's cat experiments. He also added two other concepts in addition to the Law of Effect: The Law of Recency and the Law of Exercise. Recency states that the most recent response is the most likely to occur, and Exercise states that if you repeat a behavior enough times, it will be strengthened. One thing I will remember from this section is that researchers back in the days of Thorndike had to make their own equipment for their experiments and they also tested on animals. This doesn't shock me, but I think that I tend to forget that times were different back then - they don't have the means of experimentation as we do today. Another thing I will remember is the definition of methodological construct, which is a indirect way to measure something. In Thorndike's case, he would measure the difference in time it took the cat to escape the puzzle box. Finally, I will remember the correct way to label a graph because, as it was mentioned, it will be beneficial to know in upcoming sections.

Before reading section 3.2, I didn't know too much about Pavlov, except for his experiments with dogs and salvation. But now that I've had the chance to read up on his teachings and experiments, I believe the part on SR, RS, US, UR, and CS will definitely add to my understanding of Pavlov. We have mostly viewed behaviors as having a stimulus-response (SR) pattern because we typically state the antecedent. However, it doesn't always have to be in this order, which is important to remember when speaking of Pavlovian conditioning.

Personally, I enjoyed reading through Pavlov's findings and experiments. It seemed like he went more in depth with his concepts and idea, and I appreciated that.

3.1) Edward Thorndike was a researcher around the turn of the 20th century. His contributions to the science of behavioral modifications were quite large. He came up with three theories that have become laws of behavioral modification over time. These three laws are also the three things I will remember from this section of the book. The first law is the law of effect. This law basically means that we will learn through trial and error and we will remember the last trail that worked. All other trails that failed to achieve the desired consequence will be removed from memory and the next time anything is posed the same kind of problem they will fall back on the trail that worked. The second law is the law of recency. This means that the most recent action is the one that is most likely to be repeated again. My example of this is chewing bubble gum, it Is enjoyable and when the gum loses flavor we immediately put another piece of gum in our mouths to continuing getting reinforcement. The Law of exercise is the last law that Thorndike came up with. It means that through repeated trying associations between behaviors and outcomes are strengthened, such as starting a car repeated means we expect it to start again the next time. It will be easy for me to remember these because I am good at remembering laws so I don’t get into too much trouble. Also a law is something that is needed as a foundation to furthering my understanding of behavior modification so it is necessary for me to remember these if I want to progress.
3.2) I knew that Pavlov was a very well-known person in the field of behavior modification through his works with his dogs. He was the first to come up with the idea of classical conditioning. He basically paired the sound of a bell to the idea of food which made the dogs salivate. He then proved through this that basically anything could be paired with a reinforcer to become a stimulus for something that was completely unrelated. After reading the section 3.2 my knowledge was actually quite broadened. I didn’t know that he ever preformed surgery on the dogs and I also learned that there are three things needed to make classical conditioning work. These are the stimulus salience, the regularity of presentations, and the number of presentations.
I personally found Thorndike much more interesting because intelligence in animals (including ourselves) is something I find fascinating. I find cats to be better for dogs, and I am a little disgusted with Pavlov because I just now learned that he was preforming experimental surgeries on his dogs. This reminded me a lot of the Human Centipede, which was a terrible and pretty disgusting movie.

3.1
Thorndike was one of the early psychologists. He had a particular interest in the intelligence of animals. He is known for a study on how a cat learned. He built the “puzzle boxes” which were maze-like wooden box(es) with levers that would open the door. He studied how the cat learned to use the levers to escape and how also the cat would “learn” to escape more quickly. He used the cat and the box to illustrate a method of learning.

Thorndike contributed to the science of behavior by showing that people learn the behavior of reacting faster to a method that works in the future. That is, if the cat were to discover that a method or certain lever opened the door for its escape, it would be quicker to use this method in the future. This concept is called Thorndike’s methodological construct for intelligence.

Thorndike also contributed the Law of Effect, the Law of Recency, and the Law of Exercise. In summary, the Law of Effect states that successful attempts/behaviors are continued and learned in the future, while behaviors that lead to an unsuccessful outcome as thrown out or discarded as unimportant to remember. The Law of Recency is that the last successful thing that was done will be remember and more likely to reoccur. Lastly, the Law of Exercise states that repeated success or associations will be remembered.

I will elicit a memory of the 3 above mentioned Laws best. The Law of Effect will elicit a memory because it simply makes sense-why would I remember something that doesn’t work/is unsuccessful. If it won’t help me in the future and I have discovered the successful method, I will most likely discard the unnecessary ideas. The Law seems to be common sense especially as everyone seems to have experience with a method of “trial and error”.

I will elicit the memory of the Law of Recency because it is like the idea that, “it’s always the last place you look”. When emitting the behavior of taking notes or listening to a lecture, the last thing the professor says is the thing that I remember most. In the case of the cat, it found its escape using the idea presented by this law, of course it will remember how to escape, it was the last thing it did. The behavior will be learned because no information will need to be added after that point.

Finally, I will elicit a memory of the Law of Exercise. This is the idea that practice makes perfect. The more you do the more you know. I will emit the behavior of remembering this law because it is how I study. I review material repeatedly and learn from it thusly. The more I associate with something the stronger my memory and learned behavior related to it.

I learned more from the section on Thorndike than on Pavlov and I enjoyed learning all three of the laws. I will also remember the “puzzle boxes” because it makes me laugh. I find the idea of shoving a cat into a box comical. The humor will help me elicit a stronger memory.

3.2
Prior to reading this section, I knew about Pavlov from the class Introduction to Psychology. I heard about how he trained his dogs to salivate every time they heard a bell ring. He did this by feeding them every time he rang the bell. I knew more about Pavlov than Thorndike as he seemed more famous. I’ve always enjoyed the joke: “Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?”

After eliciting the behavior of reading, I found that my vocabulary had been expanded. I emitted a learning behavior of the words experiment neurosis and psychic secretion. I found the concept of experiment neurosis most exciting as I am learning about inhibitory and excitatory neurons in my biopsychology class. I liked how I was able to relate some concepts I just learned to this Pavlov section. I also found the idea of teaching dogs to discriminate between different geometric shapes through classical conditioning fascinating. Also related to experiment neurosis is the learned helplessness idea. I was most interested in the differing personalities of the dogs in the studies and I enjoyed how it was included in the research. I did not know many of the details of Pavlov’s research and I definitely emitted a learning behavior of those details as I read the text.

The original name, psychic secretion, was also interesting. I knew about Pavlov’s research, but I didn’t know the original name that he gave to the salivation idea. I also didn’t know that he was the first to come up the proof that the dogs salivate before they got their food (not just while eating). I liked all of the elicited bonus detail information about Pavlov.

In the end, I found Thorndike more interesting because he was newer information. I’ve always enjoyed Pavlov, but I found Thorndike more interesting. I’m definitely a dog person, but I’ve always had cats and perhaps I just appreciate the fact that Thorndike was able to control them. I’ve learned about both psychologists after emitting a reading behavior. While emitting a reading behavior I elicited a greater interest toward the Thorndike passage and the activities that followed. I found the Thorndike section to be less aversive in that it was easier to read. I felt greater reward or pleasure from reading about Thorndike is relation to Pavlov. Thorndike emitted the behavior of related animal learning and behavior to the behaviors and ways of learning that people may have. Thorndike’s passage was more intriguing and less tedious and aversive in comparison to the Pavlov article.

After emitting the behavior of reading section 3.1 I learned that Thorndike was a researcher who was interested in animal intelligence. He contributed to the science of behavior by researching animal behavior. He did research on cat’s manipulating strings and levers to open doors to get out of the box he put them in. He studied how the cats would improve their time of escaping the box and he called that learning. Three things that I am likely to remember from this chapter is the trial and error learning, which is when you keep trying different approaches until you find one that works. Another thing I will remember is the law of recency which is when the most recent approach or response is most likely to reoccur. The last thing I will remember from this chapter is the “stamp out” behavior which is when the outcome is aversive the behavior will be stamped out or discarded.
Before emitting the behavior of reading section 3.2 I had heard of Pavlov in previous psychology classes. I had heard of his experiment of classical condition with the dog and the bell. Something that I found out in the reading was that Pavlov originally was studying digestive processes. He also used surgical means on the dogs in his experiments and studies.
I found Thorndike more interesting because I did not like that Pavlov used surgical means on the animals in his studies. I also found it interesting that Thorndike was looking more into the learning process of the animal whereas Pavlov was more into seeing how he could manipulate the dog’s responses. I know both had similarities, but I found Thorndike more interesting.

Section 3.1
Edward Thorndike was a researcher who was interested in learning how animals gained intelligence through the work of puzzle boxes. He founded methodological construct for intelligence as it correlates with the time that the cat improves on when it exits the box. He also came up with the three laws that came in effect with his studies to address why the animal learns from the puzzles and a graph to go along with it. The three things I will remember are the laws which are the law of effect which states that behaviors that are aversive or are unsuccessful will be stamped out. The law of regency says that the most recent response will be most likely to occur again and the law of exercise states through repetitions a behavior will be strengthened.
Section 3.2
I am familiar with Pavlov as he is the one who had the experiment with the dogs and salivation. We learned a lot about his work in other psych courses, but I didn’t know that he had such research projects as the pouch which was when he isolated part of the dog’s stomach and using incisions on the dog’s cheeks in order to analyze how much the dogs salivated. The word salient is new as well which is when the stimuli are new to the environment. It was defiantly nice to have a refresh on his work and learn some new details that I didn’t know before.
I think I liked Pavlov’s work a little more as he came up with the ideas of the stimulus responses which are used so frequently in behavior modification and the everyday world. Pavlov did work over Thorndike’s work, but I would have to say Pavlov came up with the most useful terms for behavior modification.

3.1
Edward Thorndike was a behavioral psychologist primarily interested in animal intelligence. Thorndike is best known for his work with cats and his puzzle boxes although he also experimented with chicks and mazes too; he very much enjoyed working with animals. These puzzle boxes had strings and levers that the cat had to manipulate to be set free. Thorndike measured how long the cat took to set itself free, as each trial the time lessened; he took the reduction as the measure of how much the cat had learned. This led Thorndike to develop the Law of Effect; associations that worked with successful attempts were stamped in while associations with unsuccessful attempts were stamped out. Other contributions to the psychology world Thorndike was noted for were the Law of Recency and the Law of Exercise. The Law of Recency states that the most recent response is the most likely to reoccur and the Law of Exercise states that through repetition the associations are strengthened.
The three things I will take away after emitting a reading behavior on section 3.1 are definitely the three laws: Effect, Recency and Exercise. I recently took the History and Systems course so section 3.1 elicited a sense of familiarity to me. This further drilled in the three laws, which wasn’t too terribly difficult because the behavioral college of psychology has always seemed to be easier and more fascinating to emit a learning behavior on. Another reason that I will take away the three laws is that they can still be applied to real life occurrences today.

3.2
My prior knowledge of Pavlov was most likely no different than most of my fellow classmates. I was aware that he was from Russia and this is where he first started his research. He lived quite a ways from the school and I believe he left his farm and walked there in the beginning of his schooling. If my memory serves me right, Pavlov was not the closest with the Russian government and in turn moved to the United States. It is also well known that Pavlov was another psychologist who loved working with animals, especially his dogs, and would much rather spend his time emitting learning behaviors in his lab than with his family. As far as his research went, of course I am familiar with the conditioned stimulus and conditioned responses with the meat and bell. I also was aware that he worked with the dogs’ salivation and meat powder, but not to the extent that section 3.2 covered.
Emitting a reading behavior on section 3.2 found very interesting and opened a whole new appreciation of Pavlov. From the opening of the section, it elicited new information such as the surgical experimentations in which he attached part of the small intestine to the abdominal wall. I didn’t realize all the work that went into the study of the salivation and food. I also found the fact he rerouted a dog’s salivation duct to the outside so he could collect saliva very fascinating. Having section 3.2 touch on the neuro part of Pavlov’s work was helpful; explaining how the neurons would excite or inhibit other neurons and the coining them either excitatory or inhibitory. I have been emitting a learning behavior on biopsychology this semester so this part of the new information elicited a connecting factor for me. A couple other new things I learned about Pavlov was his work with the dogs in discriminating between shapes and learned helplessness as well as experimental neurosis. There was also a bit of psychology drama with the statement of the only part of Pavlov’s work that lent direct support to the ongoing research of Thorndike and Watson was promoted in the US. I loved it.
Judging between the two, Pavlov and Thorndike, in which I found more interesting I’d have to chose Pavlov. The reason could be that throughout my course work we’ve covered Pavlov’s contributions a bit more so than Thorndike’s. I also believe that Pavlov took his behavioral work to the next level, at the same time not discrediting the work that Thorndike brought to the field. I also thought I could simply find Pavlov more interesting because I’m so much more of a dog person than a cat person!

3.1

Thorndike was an early Behaviorist who focused mainly on animal behavior. His biggest contribution was finding out that humans arent the only creatures who can learn through trial and error. Animals can learn what works and what works faster with his Law of Effect. One thing that I'll emit a remembering behavior is the Law of Effect that was created by Thorndike. This has to do with associations that worked withs uccessful attempts beign stamped in and unsuccessful attempts being stamped out.
I'll also emit a remembering behavior for the trial and error learning sectionl. This happens when someone tries different ways to obtain an outcome.
I'll also be elicited to remember that Thorndike was mostly interested in animals as opposed to humans. This helped him pave the way for future behaviorists.

3.2

Before this chapter, all I had known was that Pavlov was Russian and he was responsible for his classical conditioning theory where he used a tuning fork and a dogs salivation to come up with the idea that dogs can associate the sound of the tuning fork with the outcome of food. They would salivate before seeing or even smelling food, simply because they heard the tone that had been associated with "lunchtime".
After emitting a reading behavior of this chapter, I saw that the section built upon what I had learned already and got into a little more detail with the stimulus- response or salient stimuli. The stimulus doesnt have to come before the response. That is what Pavlov has taught us with his classical conditioning. Basically, salient stimuli is a neutral stimulus in the envirnonment that is noticed.

Overall, I think Pavlov is more interesting. I think his findings with the association conditioning was more groundbreaking in terms of behaviorism. With his findings, it became possible to truly manipulate dogs behavior with the simple concept of association.

3.1

Thorndike was a psychologist who heavily studied animal intelligence. He had many contributions to the science of behavior. He is first and foremost known for his creation of “puzzle boxes”. These are contraptions that he built himself out of materials found in alleys and such. They would typically have a lever or some other trip that would open the door. He would place cats in them to study how long it took them to escape. He also used them to study animal learning. If a cat took 30 seconds to get out the first time and 20 seconds the second time, he considered this learning. These findings led to the first major contribution and thing I will remember, the Law of Effect. This states that when an animal/person emits a response and it is reinforced by a positive outcome, the association is stamped in. He also says that the association is strengthened. Associated with the Law of Effect, the Law of Recency and Law of Exercise help explain learning behavior. The law of Recency says that when the behavior is rewarded, the most recent behavior is the one that will most likely reoccur. We do this all the time. The book gave a good example of when we try to start our car. If we can’t start it, we try many things (extinction burst/variability). Usually the last thing that starts it is the thing we try first the next time we have problems. The Law of Exercise states that the associations are strengthened through repetition. The more we do this, the more likely we are to associate the behavior with the outcome. With all of these, it is important to note that like the most recent behavior being stamped in for the outcome, the previous responses that did not result in the positive outcome or resulted in an aversive outcome will be stamped out. All of this encompasses learning. Thorndike was also a big contributor that what we learn from animals can be generalized to all living beings, such as us. I will remember these Laws because they are logical. We use them every day without realizing it. His contributions were big, which also strengthens me remembering them. I knew I had heard of them previously, but had not really understood them. They make a lot of sense and I think they are something that led the way for understanding learning in both animals and humans.

3.2

Prior to reading about Pavlov, I think the only thing I really knew about him was that he was responsible for the discovery of classical conditioning with his “Pavlov’s dogs” experiments. I knew that he had conditioned dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell by pairing the sound with food, then taking the food away. I had always confused classical conditioning and operant conditioning, so I wasn’t completely sure which this one was prior. After reading the section, I learned quite a bit more about Pavlov. I learned that he began researching digestion and created a system to measure the amount of dog’s saliva by inserting tubes into their cheeks surgically. He first realized with this that the dogs would begin to salivate when they heard his feet walking toward them. He called this “psychic secretion”. He experimented with sound proofing the rooms, wearing soft soled shoes, etc. From this he went on to study what he called the “Conditioned Reflex”. He was interested in how the brain works. He said there were neurons that excite other neurons and ones that inhibit other ones. In order to test if some dogs are ruled by excitatory neurons and some by inhibitory neurons, he conditioned dogs to different shapes. One shape would signal food (excite salivation) and one would signal no food (inhibit salivation). He then made the shapes more and more like each other. When the dogs could not discriminate between them, some dogs would go crazy (ruled by excitatory neurons) and some would do nothing like learned helplessness (ruled by inhibitory neurons). He called this experimental neurosis. He then went on to discover classical conditioning and pairing unconditioned stimuli with neutral stimuli to create conditioned stimuli and conditioned responses. He said that there are three vital components to successful conditioning. The neutral stimulus has to be salient, or it has to be able to be noticed in the environment. You have to have a noise loud enough or at the right tone to be heard. The NS has to be regular in its presentation. It has to be predictable and presented with the US to be associated with it. Lastly, it must be presented a sufficient number of times. Associations are strengthened over time, as Thorndike’s Law of Exercise states. So you must make sure there are enough pairings to condition the stimulus and response.

I think both of them are interesting. It is obvious that Pavlov built on Thorndike’s ideas, especially the Law of Exercise with classical conditioning. Both have contributed to extremely important ideas that have shaped psychology as we know it. I would have to say, personally, that the idea that we can condition others using classical conditioning is extremely interesting to me, more than observing learning behaviors in animals. I think that discovering the possibility to condition responses in animals has been an extremely important contribution. It can help us in everyday situations, such as work, school, home life, etc. It is something I can take right away and implement into my life. Thorndike’s work does not seem to be as applicable. I think the things we can use like Pavlov’s information is probably more interesting to a lot of people because we like to implement what we learn.