Guthrie Theory of Learning Quiz: Learning Theories

Study Notes

Guthrie's Associative Theory of Learning

Forgetting occurs due to interference because stimuli become associated with new responses.
Guthrie Horton experiment illustrates the associative theory of learning.

Cognitive Theories on Learning

Kohler's Insight Theory

Wolfgang Kohler, a German-American psychologist, argued that animals do not learn everything through gradual trial-and-error process or stimulus-response association.
Kohler discovered the isolation effect in memory, contributing to the theory of memory and recall.
He developed a non-associationist theory of the nature of associations, emphasizing the active role of organization in perception.

Kurt Lewin's Field Theory

Lewin emphasized the meaning of human behavior in terms of the forces and tension that move men to action.
Field theory states that behavior must be derived from a totality of coexisting facts.
The Zeigarnik Effect, discovered by Lewin's student, shows that people tend to remember uncompleted tasks or unfinished business.

Classical Conditioning Theory

Factors affecting the conditioned stimulus and response relationship include:
- Frequency of conditioned and unconditioned stimulus pairings
- Timing of stimulus presentation
- Similarities between one type of conditioned stimulus and another
Extinction is a process where conditioned responses can be eliminated gradually.
Spontaneous recovery is a process where extinct responses can reappear after a rest period.

Connectionism Theory

Edward Thorndike's Connectionism Theory is the first scientific theory of learning.
Thorndike focused on the effects of rewards and punishment, success or failure, and satisfaction and annoyance on the learner.
Three major laws of learning:
- Law of exercise or repetition: repeated responses are retained longer.
- Law of effect: responses are strengthened if followed by pleasure and weakened if followed by displeasure.
- Law of readiness: certain conduction units in a given situation are more predisposed to function than others.

Operant Conditioning Theory

B.F. Skinner's Theory of Operant Conditioning includes four types:
- Positive reinforcement
- Negative reinforcement
- Punishment
- Extinction

Behaviorism Theory

John Watson's Behaviorism theory states that:
- Behaviorism is naturalistic, and everything can be explained in terms of natural laws.
- Man has no soul and no mind, but only has a brain that responds to external stimuli.
- Man is stripped of responsibility, freedom, and dignity, and is reduced to a purely biological being.
- Man is a machine that responds to conditioning processes and responds accordingly to the way the mind perceives the stimulus.
- Men are "biological machines" whose minds do not have any influence on their actions.

Description

This quiz covers the associative theory of learning proposed by Guthrie, as well as Kohler's Insight theory which focuses on how animals learn without gradual trial-and-error. The quiz also includes information about Guthrie Horton experiment and the isolation effect discovered by Kohler and von Restoff.