- Law of effect
The law of effect is a principle of
psychology described byEdward Thorndike in1898 . It holds thatresponse s to stimuli that produce a satisfying or pleasant state of affairs in a particular situation are more likely to occur again in the situation. Conversely, responses that produce a discomforting, annoying or unpleasant effect are less likely to occur again in the situationThe law is important in understanding
learning , especially as it relates tooperant conditioning . However its status is controversial. Particularly in relation to animal learning, it is not obvious how to define a "satisfying state of affairs" or an "annoying state of affairs" independent of their ability to induce instrumental learning, and the law of effect has therefore been widely criticised as logically circular. In the study of operant conditioning, most psychologists have therefore adoptedB. F. Skinner 's proposal to define a reinforcer as any stimulus which, when presented after a response, leads to an increase in the future rate of that response. On that basis, the law of effect follows tautologically from the definition of a reinforcer.In an influential paper of 1970, R. J. Herrnstein proposed a quantitative relationship between response rate ("B") and reinforcement rate ("Rf"):
"B" = "k" "Rf" / ("Rf"0 + "Rf")
where "k" and "Rf"0 are constants. Herrnstein proposed that this formula, which he derived from thematching law he had observed in studies ofconcurrent schedules of reinforcement , should be regarded as a quantification of the law of effect. While the qualitative law of effect may be a tautology, this quantitative version is not.References
Herrnstein, R. J. (1970). On the law of effect. "Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 13", 243-266.
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