Animal Intelligence: Experimental Studies / Edition 1

by Edward Thorndike

Overview

Animal Intelligence is a consolidated record of Edward L. Thorndike's theoretical and empirical contributions to the comparative psychology of learning. Thorndike's approach is systematic and comprehensive experimentation using a variety of animals and tasks, all within a laboratory setting. When this book first appeared, it set a compelling example, and helped make the study of animal behavior very much an experimental laboratory science.

This landmark study in the investigation of animal intelligence illustrates Thorndike's thinking on the evolution of the mind. It includes his formal statement of the influential law of effect, which had a significant impact on other behaviorists. Hull's law of primary reinforcement was closely related to the law of effect and Skinner acknowledged that the process of operant conditioning was probably that described in the law of effect.

The new introduction by Darryl Bruce is an in-depth study of Thorndike's legacy to comparative psychology as well as a thorough retrospective review of Animal Intelligence. He includes a biographical introduction of the behaviorist and then delves into his theories and work. Among the topics Bruce covers with respect to Thorndike's studies are the nature of animal intelligence, the laws of learning and connectionism, implications for comparative psychology, and relation to theories of other behaviorists. Animal Intelligence is an intriguing analysis that will be of importance to psychologists and animal behaviorists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765804822
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	07/31/1999
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949) had a distinguished career in psychology that spanned more than half a century. Through most of his career, Thorndike was a professor of psychology at Columbia University. He authored more than 500 publications.

Darryl Bruce is professor of psychology at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is the author of many articles and the co-editor of Autobiographical Memory: Theoretical and Applied Perspective and Eyewitness Memory: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives.

Table of Contents

1: The Study of Consciousness and the Study of Behavior; 2: Animal Intelligence; an Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals 1; 3: The Instinctive Reactions of Young Chicks 1; 4: A Note on the Psychology of Fishes 1; 5: The Mental Life of the Monkeys; an Experimental Study 1; 6: Laws and Hypotheses for Behavior Laws of Behavior in General; 7: The Evolution of the Human Intellect 1

Editorial Reviews

One hundred years ago, Thorndike's experiments on the learning of cats, dogs, chickens, and fish initiated the study of comparative psychology… This reissue of the 1911 monograph by Thorndike (d. 1949) will interest historians of science. The work was written in refreshingly plain English and contains many figures and tables with his experimental data, and a short index… Graduate students; faculty.” —T. C. Williams, Choice

From the Publisher