After the puzzle boxes: thorndike in the 20th century

From the beginning of this century, following the publication of his dissertation, Thorndike made many significant contributions to psychology, some related to animal and human learning and others to various areas of educational psychology. This paper concentrates on the former and mentions some of the latter, in the context of personal and professional aspects of his life.     

A definitive,large-sample factoring of personality structure in objective measures,as a basis for the high school objective-analytic battery

Eighty-two subtests chosen from a series of preceding researches as the best marker variables for 12 previously checked and interpreted personality factors (U.I. 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23–26, 28, 32, and 33) were administered to 2,522 boys of high school age. The ensuing factor analysis, aimed to check and precision the factor patterns, to lead to the definitive HSOA battery, and to yield scores for further age and genetic analyses, observed the following procedural requirements: (1) Scree test for number of factors, (2) iterated communalities, (3) blind automated rotation, carried further by rotoplot to a maximum simple structure, (4) a test of simple structure significance, and (5) matching of patterns for invariance against other studies. As before in this domain, 19–20 factors were found, and the 10 for which definite markers had been made available matched very well with former patterns. Although a small minority of tests failed to load as hypothesized, this results in some weakness of factor estimate only on U.I. 32, Exvia-Invia. For on all 10 factors for the planned HSOA battery, with this possible exception, the validities of weighted battery scores reached acceptable levels.     

Progressive elaboration and memory for order in children

Three experiments were conducted investigating memory for items and order in a progressive elaboration paired-associates task. For all subjects retention of item information was improved by the use of progressively elaborated interactions relative to a no-elaboration control condition. For second and fourth graders, retention of order information depended upon the type of elaboration. If successive interactions were added in a logical temporal order, retention (of order information) was superior to the case where the successive interactions were added in a random order. This effect was not obtained with kindergarten children. In the second and third experiments, kindergarteners were instructed regarding the sequencing of the successive items, and results similar to those obtained with older children ensued. The data were discussed in terms of Tulving's distinction between episodic and semantic memory.     

Resistance to continuous delay of reinforcement or extinction following partial delay or partial reinforcement in acquisition: A direct comparison

Rats received either partial reward (PR) or partial delay (PD) in acquisition with one, two, or three delay or nonreward trials followed by an immediately rewarded trial or one delay or nonreward trial followed by an immediately rewarded trial. These four groups were then split in half and given either continuous delay or continuous nonreward (extinction) in a “response persistence” phase. In addition, two continuously reinforced groups, one experiencing continuous delay, and the other experiencing extinction were included. The results showed that response persistence was greater when PD groups were given continuous delay rather than extinction, but the opposite was true for PR groups. The “length” (1, 2, or 3 versus 1 nonreward or delay trial) also transferred to the response persistence phase with the length 1, 2, and 3 conditions being more persistent than the 1 length conditions. The results were discussed with respect to theoretical notions of response persistence.     

Magnitude of negative reinforcement and resistance to extinction

In the first experiment rats experienced large or small magnitude of negative reinforcement (shock reduction) in a straight alley. Half of the subjects in each magnitude group received continuous reinforcement, and the other half received a 50% partial reinforcement schedule (nonreinforcement consisting of no shock reduction in the goal box). In extinction the groups were ordered: large partial > small-partial > small-continuous > large-continuous. In the second experiment rats received large, small and nonreinforcement in various sequences using the runway-negative reinforcement procedure and were ordered: SNL>LNL>SNL>LNS in resistance to extinction (letters represent the magnitudes in the sequence experienced in acquisition). The results of these experiments indicate a commality between positive and negative reinforcement with respect to behavioral phenomena and theoretical accounts of those phenomena.     

Locus of control,field dependence and the conditions arousing objective vs subjective self-awareness

Observations of persons engaged in quasievaluative situations revealed that the greater amounts of body movement characterized as tension reducing were exhibited by persons holding internal control as opposed to external control expectancies. Conceptualizing situations as varying in the degree to which they allow one to become task involved (subjective self-awareness) or self-conscious (objective self-awareness) it was hypothesized that the latter would be more disruptive to internals, the former to externals. Body movement exhibited during introspection and personal reminiscence supported this hypothesis though no support was found in another task involving the completion of moral dilemma stories. In the latter task field dependent subjects proved to be more affected by self-awareness conditions, writing more normative stories when cues for objective self-awareness were more prominent.     

Applying an occupational classification to the work histories of young men and women

Holland's occupational classification was used to analyze the work histories of a national representative sample of young men and women ages 14 through 24. Hypotheses tested were concerned with the psychological orderliness of occupational changes, the relationship between occupational experiences and aspirations, and the relationship between consistent occupational codes and the stability of work histories. The analyses supported the usefulness of the occupational classification for organizing the work histories of both young men and young women. For both sexes, the classification reflected regular patterns of job changes. The category of a person's earlier job was an efficient predictor of a person's subsequent jobs; likewise, the category of a person's current job forecasted the category of his vocational aspiration. The consistency of an occupational code was also related to job stability for whites but not for blacks.     

Imitation as a function of response commonality,serial order,and vicarious punishment

The effects of response commonality, serial order of modeled responses, and vicarious punishment on young boys' recall and acceptance of 20 commodity prefereces of an adult were examined in a 2 (common dimension vs no-common dimension) × 2 (vicarious punishment vs no-vicarious consequences) × 2 (recall or acceptance test) × 5 (response-block) factorial experiment. As predicted, the presence of a common dimension resulted in improved recall of the modeled responses, vicarious punishment was more effective under common dimension than no-common dimension conditions, and a serial order effect for recall of the modeled responses was obtained. The overall pattern of results is discussed in terms of the conceptualization that imitation requires both that the observer (1) has acquired and retained the model's responses and (2) has been placed in circumstances which favor activating this learning into overt performance.     

Ambiguity of acceptance,social desirability,and dating choice

Male subjects differing in social desirability (likableness, physical attractiveness) chose a date from an array of females of three levels of physical attractiveness. Choices were made under two conditions: one where acceptance was assured regardless of whom subject chose; the other where acceptance was left ambiguous. The findings were as follows: (a) subjects selected a more physically attractive female when assured of acceptance than when acceptance was left ambiguous; (b) subjects estimated that highly physically attractive females were less likely to accept them as a date than were either moderately physically attractive or physically unattractive females; (c) subjects' self-ratings of their likableness were not related to the physical attractiveness of their choices under either choice condition nor to their estimates of their chances that the females would accept them as a date; and (d) subjects' self-evaluated physical attractiveness, although unrelated to the physical attractiveness of the subjects' choices, did relate to subjects' estimates of their chances of acceptance. Highly physically attractive subjects estimated their chances of acceptance as better than did subjects who considered themselves low in physical attractiveness. The implications of the findings for the “matching hypothesis” are discussed.