Laws of Learning
Thorndike is the first psychologist who has propounded the laws of learning on the basis of his experiments. In the beginning, he propounded only three laws which are called primary laws of learning. Later he propounded five other laws of learning, which are called secondary laws of learning.
Law of Readiness: Thorndike explained that it is necessary for learning that the learner is ready for learning. Where there is a problem before the learner, then he makes effort to solve it, and we say that he is ready for learning. Until the students are ready for learning, neither they can learn themselves nor the teacher can teach them. So it is necessary that the students are made ready to learn. Readiness assists in focusing the attention and helps students to learn faster and they get satisfaction in learning. In case they are not ready to learn, then they are not satisfied with the process of learning and they become peevish.
Thorndike has described 3 situations in which an individual gets satisfaction and does not get satisfaction:
- When an individual becomes ready to work and he is given the work, he gets satisfaction.
- When an individual is ready to work and he is not given work, then he gets dissatisfaction.
- When an individual is not ready to work and he is given work, then he gets dissatisfaction.
Law of Exercise: Thorndike has explained that if the activity of learning is repeated, it gives an opportunity to exercise, and learning becomes stable; and if opportunity to repeat it is not given and it is not used then this learning is forgotten after an interval of time. So this law is also called the law of use and disuse. So it is necessary that whatever is taught to the students, is repeated and used from time to time.
This law was criticized. First, the process of learning does not depend only on exercise, besides exercise, understanding and insight are also needed for learning. Second, learning is not fully dependent on exercise or repetition only; if it is so, that cat would have remembered both the wrong and the right responses due to repetition in trial and error, but the fact remains that the cat learnt only the correct response. Thorndike felt these shortcomings, so he amended this law later and propounded the law of controlled practice. According to which, the process of learning depends on several other activities also, such as understanding, reasoning and coordination in thoughts.
Law of Effect: Thorndike has explained that if an individual gets satisfaction from the outcome of an activity, then he does that activity repeatedly and learns it, and if he does not get any satisfaction and benefit from it, then he does not do it again and consequently fails to learn it.
The psychologists have explained that according to the law of effect, the relationship between a stimulus and the response determines the strong or weak effect. When the relationship has a satisfactory effect on the student, then their relationship is strengthened, and when it has dis-satisfactory effect, then the relationship becomes weak. Therefore, relationship between stimulus and response depends on the satisfactory effect of the response. In the experiment of Thorndike, the cat had learnt the action of opening the door because it gave the food and satisfaction to it.
This law as also criticized because satisfying effect and annoyance are two such terms in the law of effect which are subjective and they cannot analyze animal behavior properly. This is a difficult task to know whether an animal derived satisfaction or annoyance after an activity. Secondly, this law was criticized for the fact that an individual responds first and he gets reward later. Critics say that the effect of the activity occurs in the future even, then how can it have its effect on that response which has already occurred. Despite these criticisms, this law is used in the process of learning. The use of reward and punishment also proves the utility of this law.