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--- learning_theories:connectionism [2011/02/11 12:32]
jpetrovic [What is the practical meaning of connectivism?]
+++ learning_theories:connectionism [2011/02/21 18:28]
jpetrovic [What is connectionism?]
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ===== What is connectionism? =====
-Connectionism was later introduced by [[http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/spencer_herbert.html|Herbert Spencer]], [[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/|William James]] and his student [[http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm|Edward Thorndike]] in the very beginning of the 20th century. Connectionism was then **based on principles of associationism** which claimed that((W. Bechtel and Abrahamsen, A. Connectionism and the Mind: An Introduction to Parallel Processing in Networks. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA, 1991.)):
+Connectionism represents psychology's first comprehensive theory of learning((Zimmerman, Barry J., and Dale H. Schunk. Educational psychology: a century of contributions. Routledge, 2003.)). It was later introduced by [[http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/spencer_herbert.html|Herbert Spencer]], [[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/|William James]] and his student [[http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm|Edward Thorndike]] in the very beginning of the 20th century. Connectionism was then **based on principles of associationism** which claimed that((W. Bechtel and Abrahamsen, A. Connectionism and the Mind: An Introduction to Parallel Processing in Networks. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA, 1991.)):
   * Mental elements or ideas become associated with one another through experience
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 But connectionism **expands** this **ideas of associationism** by introducing distributed representations or supervised learning(([[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.7504&rep=rep1&type=pdf|Medler, David A. A Brief History of Connectionism. Neural Computing Surveys, 1(2), p18-72. 1998.]])) and should not be confused with associationism. Although he is considered one of the first true connectionist, William James' student Edward Thorndike also made the move towards behaviorist ideas.
-In order to explain some questions concerning learning, Thorndike introduced two laws of learning(([[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.7504&rep=rep1&type=pdf|Medler, David A. A Brief History of Connectionism. Neural Computing Surveys, 1(2), p18-72. 1998.]])). The first law is the **//law of exercise or use or frequency//**, which states that **stimulus-response** (S-R) **associations** are **strengthened through repetition** or weakened through lack of repetition. His second law, **//law of effect//**, states that the consequence or **outcome** of a situation-response event **can strengthen or weaken** the **connection** between situation and response. If an event is followed by a reinforcing stimulus, the connection will be strengthened and vice versa. This laws have set the **basic principles** of **behaviorist stimulus-response** views on **learning**.
+[[http://historyofpsych.blogspot.com/2010/01/american-behaviorism.html|{{  images:thorndikes_cat.jpg|Thorndike's cat experiment. Image borrowed from: History of Psychology: American Behaviorism. Click on the picture to follow the link.  }}]]
-Based on this laws Thorndike considered that all **learning is incremental** and **not insightful**, which he tried to prove at the very end of 19th century through experiments first with chickens and later with cats and dogs. In one experiment he placed a hungry cat inside a //puzzle box//, which had a mechanism that would open the doors of the box every time a string would be pulled or a button pushed. Behavior which was "rewarded" by opening the doors was slowly increased and learning occurred. Thorndike also believed that transfer of learning (application to new situations) occurs only because of previously encountered situations and that intelligence is just a consequence of learned connections.
+At the very end of 19th century Thorndike performed experiments first on chickens and later on cats and dogs. In one experiment he placed a hungry cat inside a //puzzle box//, which had a mechanism that would open the doors of the box every time a string would be pulled or a button pushed. Behavior which resulted in opening the doors was slowly increased as the cat after each successful attempt to open the door needed a bit less time repeat the same action after being put back into the box. Based on this experiment Thorndike concluded learning is **incremental** and **not insightful**, since it occurred only through //trial and error// forming of associations between situation and response, where correct response was achieved through repetition of trial and error. Established connections or knowledge, according to Thorndike also cause and determine intelligence.
+To explain observed properties of learning, Thorndike introduced three laws of learning. The first law is the **//law of exercise or use or frequency//**, which states that **stimulus-response** (S-R) **associations** are **strengthened through repetition** or weakened through lack of repetition. His second law, **//law of effect//**, states that the consequence or **outcome** of a situation-response event **can strengthen or weaken** the **connection** between situation and response. If an event is followed by a reinforcing stimulus, the connection will be strengthened and vice versa. The third law, **//law of readiness//**, which claims learning is facilitated by learner's readiness (emotional and motivational) to learn. This potential to learn leads to frustration if not satisfied.
+Thorndike later changed some of his views admitting that he was wrong and that negative reinforcement (punishment) does not really lead to any kind of learning. This had great influence on educational process helping to end the practice of punishing the students for incorrect answers. This laws have set the **basic principles** of **behaviorist stimulus-response** views on **learning**.
+Another point of Thorndike's interest in the first two decades of 20th century was the **knowledge transfer** in terms of generalizing the knowledge or skills and applying them for another problem. Thorndike performed experimental studies by which he showed knowledge transfer is specific rather then general and will not occur unless learned problem and given problem share many characteristics. This was the opposite of what school systems mostly suggested at the time, that some school subjects improve student's mind in general (//doctorine of formal discipline//).
+In his book on learning of mathematics((Thorndike, E. The Psychology of Arithmetic. New York: Macmillan. 1922.)), Thorndike suggested problems children are expected to solve and learn from should be realistic. He also emphasizes importance of **repetition** and insists on repetitive practice of basic arithmetic operations. Some of the principles in this book even seem inconsistent with his views on learning: here he refers to learning as meaningful and insightful. Well-learned basic skills enable learning of higher-order skills.
+Thorndike is also credited for introduction and standardization of a number of tests of knowledge and intelligence (CAVD). In his own words, //whatever exists at all exists in some amount.//((Thorndike, Edward L. Individual differences. Psychological bulletin. 1918.))
 ===== What is the practical meaning of connectivism? =====
-Connectionism was at its time considered a general theory of learning for both humans and animals. Thorndike tried to apply this to learning **mathematics**((Thorndike, E. The Psychology of Arithmetic. New York: Macmillan. 1922.)), **spelling and reading** ((Thorndike, E. The Teacher's Word Book. New York: Teachers College. 1921.)), measurement of **intelligence** ((Thorndike, E. at al. The Measurement of Intelligence. New York: Teachers College Press. 1927.)) and adult learning ((Thorndike, E. et al. Adult Learning. New York: Macmillan. 1928. )) mostly through his laws of learning. Thorndike was one of the pioneers of **active learning**, proposing children should learn by themselves rather than being thought.
+Connectionism was at its time considered a general theory of learning for both humans and animals. Thorndike's ideas which could well be applied for learning are the idea that rewards promote learning and that repetition enhances learning. For example, learning to multiply by three should be learned in context of converting feet to yards.
+Thorndike tried to apply this to learning **mathematics**((Thorndike, E. The Psychology of Arithmetic. New York: Macmillan. 1922.)), **spelling and reading** ((Thorndike, E. The Teacher's Word Book. New York: Teachers College. 1921.)), measurement of **intelligence** ((Thorndike, E. at al. The Measurement of Intelligence. New York: Teachers College Press. 1927.)) and adult learning ((Thorndike, E. et al. Adult Learning. New York: Macmillan. 1928. )) mostly through his laws of learning. Thorndike was one of the pioneers of **active learning**, proposing children should learn by themselves rather than being thought.
 ===== Keywords and most important names =====
-  * **Connectionism**, **stimulus-response**, **S-R**, **networks of simple units**, **associationism**, **supervised learning**, **law of exercise or use or frequency**, **law of effect**, **incremental learning**
+  * **Connectionism**, **stimulus-response**, **S-R**, **networks of simple units**, **associationism**, **supervised learning**, **law of exercise or use or frequency**, **law of effect**, **incremental learning**, **“trial and error**
   * [[http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/spencer_herbert.html|Herbert Spencer]], [[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/|William James]], [[http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm|Edward Thorndike]]
 ===== Criticisms =====
-Thorndike tried to prove that all forms of thoughts and behaviors can be explained through repetition and reward, without need for introducing any unobservable internal states, yet this is **today** generally **considered incorrect**. Connectionism was in the first decades of 20th century succeeded by [[learning_paradigms:behaviorism]], but Thorndike's experiments also inspired [[learning_theories:gestalt_psychology|gestalt psychology]].
+Thorndike tried to prove that all forms of thoughts and behaviors can be explained through S-R relations with use of repetition and reward, without need for introducing any unobservable internal states, yet this is **today** generally **considered incorrect**. This //learning through response// was later in 20th century replaced by //learning as knowledge construction//. Connectionism was in the first decades of 20th century succeeded by [[learning_paradigms:behaviorism]], but Thorndike's experiments also inspired [[learning_theories:gestalt_psychology|gestalt psychology]].
 ===== Bibliography =====
+[[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.7504&rep=rep1&type=pdf|Medler, David A. A Brief History of Connectionism. Neural Computing Surveys, 1(2), p18-72. 1998.]]
 [[http://tip.psychology.org/thorn.html|TIP: Connectionism (E. Thorndike).]]
@@ Line 49: / Line 58: @@
 [[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.7504&rep=rep1&type=pdf|Medler, David A. A Brief History of Connectionism. Neural Computing Surveys, 1(2), p18-72. 1998.]]
+Zimmerman, Barry J. and Schunk, Dale H. Educational psychology: a century of contributions. Routledge, 2003.
 ===== Read more =====
+[[http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Thorndike/education.htm|Thorndike, E. The Contribution of Psychology to Education. The Journal of Educational Psychology, 1, 5-12. 1910.]]
+[[http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Thorndike/Animal/index.htm|Thorndike, E. Animal Intelligence. 1911.]]
 Thorndike, E. Educational Psychology: The Psychology of Learning. New York: Teachers College Press. 1913.

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