Law of Effect

Examples of Law of Effect in the following topics:

• Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning: Thorndike's Law of Effect

  • Thorndike, who established the law of effect.
  • He used these findings to publish his now famous "law of effect" theory.
  • Thorndike's law of effect now informs much of what we know about operant conditioning and behaviorism.
  • The law of effect has been expanded to various forms of behavior modification.
  • Relate Thorndike's law of effect to the principles of operant conditioning

• Behavioral Psychology

  • In his famous 1890s experiment, he trained his dogs to salivate on command by associating the ringing of a bell with the delivery of food.
  • Watson, the idea of conditioning as an automatic form of learning became a key concept in the development of behaviorism.
  • Edward Lee Thorndike was an American psychologist whose work on animal behavior and the learning process led to the "law of effect."
  • The law of effect states that responses that create a satisfying effect are more likely to occur again, while responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur.
  • In Watson's famous experiment, he taught an infant to be afraid of a fur coat, among other things, through the process of conditioning.

• Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning

  • Operant conditioning, a theory of behaviorism, states that behaviors are learned by the reinforcement of consequences over time.
  • He used these findings to publish his now famous "law of effect" theory: the notion that pleasing after-effects strengthen the action that produced it, meaning they increase the probability the action will be performed again in the same situation, whereas displeasing after-effects weaken the likelihood it will be performed again.
  • All of these practices concern the setup of an experiment.
  • This is accomplished through reinforcement, or reward, of the segments of the target behavior, and can be tested using a large variety of actions and rewards.
  • By testing different reinforcement schedules, Skinner learned valuable information about the best ways to encourage a specific behavior, or the most effective ways to create a long-lasting behavior.

• Ethical Guidelines for Animal Research

  • Animal research raises the controversial question of whether it is ethical to harm animals with the aim of improving human lives.
  • A legal right is a law-based entitlement that applies to all members of a particular group and is upheld by the justice system.
  • Many argue that animal research has yielded substantial benefits to the human race, and that these outweigh the negative effects on animals.
  • The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) of 1966 is the only federal law in the United States regulating the treatment of animals in research; while some other laws and policies may include additional species coverage or specifications for animal care and use, all refer to the AWA as the minimally acceptable standard for animal treatment and care.
  • A variety of animals are used in experiments.

• Organization

  • The gestalt effect is the capability of our brain to generate whole forms, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of global figures, instead of just collections of simpler and unrelated elements.
  • A few of these laws of grouping include the laws of proximity, similarity, and closure and the figure-ground law.
  • The IBM logo plays on the law of closure.
  • Because of the law of similarity, people tend to see this as six clusters of black and white dots rather than 36 individual dots.
  • Because of the law of proximity, people tend to see clusters of dots on a page instead of a large number of individual dots.

• Narcotics

  • Under U.S. law, "narcotics" include opium, opium derivatives, and their semi-synthetic or fully synthetic substitutes.
  • Drug effects depend heavily on the dose, route of administration, previous exposure to the drug, and the expectation of the user.
  • It is the neurological effects of narcotic drugs that make them addictive.
  • Immediate effects include cessation of pain, drowsiness, and a feeling of well-being associated with pain reduction.
  • Tolerance does not develop uniformly for all actions of these drugs, giving rise to a number of toxic effects.

• Learning Disabilities and Special Education

  • There are a variety of learning disabilities that require special assistance in order to help children learn effectively.
  • Special education is the practice of educating students with disabilities or special needs in an effective way that addresses their individual differences and needs.
  • Certain laws and policies are designed to help children with learning disabilities obtain an education equivalent to their non-disabled peers.
  • Two laws exist to help ensure that children with learning disabilities receive the same level of education as children without disabilities: IDEA and Section 504.
  • Section 504 is a civil-rights law that protects people with disabilities from discrimination.

• The Influence of Genes on Behavior

  • The influence of genes on behavior has been well established in the scientific community.
  • To a large extent, who we are and how we behave is a result of our genetic makeup.
  • Behavioral genetics studies heritability of behavioral traits, and it overlaps with genetics, psychology, and ethology (the scientific study of human and animal behavior).
  • For example, although environment has an effect on the walking behavior of infants and toddlers, children are unable to walk at all before an age that is predetermined by their genome.
  • This is referred to as the law of Mendelian inheritance.

• Decision Making

  • Representativeness explains many of the ways in which human judgments break the laws of probability.
  • The anchoring effect has been demonstrated by a wide variety of experiments, both in laboratories and in the real world.
  • The effect is stronger when people have to make their judgments quickly. 
  • The framing effect is a phenomenon that affects how people make decisions.
  • The framing effect has a huge impact on how people make decisions.

• Behavior Therapy and Applied Behavioral Analysis

  • His article "Provisional Laws of Acquired Behavior or Learning" makes frequent use of the phrase "modifying behavior."
  • Many have argued that behavior therapy is at least as effective as drug treatment for depression, ADHD, and OCD.
  • Two large studies done by the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University indicates that behavior therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are equally effective for OCD.
  • Virtual reality treatment has been shown to be effective for a fear of heights; it has also been shown to help with the treatment of a variety of anxiety disorders.
  • Other critics have argued that ABA and other behavior therapies are too rigid in their approach, and that effective treatment requires an acknowledgement of the subconscious as well as observable behaviors.