Edward Thorndike
Edward Thorndike
Edward Lee "Ted" Thorndikewas an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on Comparative psychology and the learning process led to the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for modern educational psychology. He also worked on solving industrial problems, such as employee exams and testing. He was a member of the board of the Psychological Corporation and served as president of the American Psychological Association in 1912. A Review...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth31 August 1874
CityWilliamsburg, MA
CountryUnited States of America
Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure.
Human education is concerned with certain changes in the intellects, characters and behavior of men, its problems being roughly included under these four topics: Aims, materials, means and methods.
All that exists, exists in some amount and can be measured.
The real difference between a man's scientific judgments about himself and the judgment of others about him is he has added sources of knowledge.
Psychology helps to measure the probability that an aim is attainable.
Amongst the minds of animals that of man leads, not as a demigod from another planet, but as a king from the same race.
The function of intellect is to provide a means of modifying our reactions to the circumstances of life, so that we may secure pleasure, the symptom of welfare.
To the intelligent man with an interest in human nature it must often appear strange that so much of the energy of the scientific world has been spent on the study of the body and so little on the study of the mind.
The restriction of studies of human intellect and character to studies of conscious states was not without influence on a scientific studies of animal psychology.
Human beings are accustomed to think of intellect as the power of having and controlling ideas and of ability to learn as synonymous with ability to have ideas. But learning by having ideas is really one of the rare and isolated events in nature.
On the whole, the psychological work of the last quarter of the nineteenth century emphasized the study of consciousness to the neglect of the total life of intellect and character
Dogs get lost hundreds of times and no one ever notices it or sends an account of it to a scientific magazine.
It will of course, be understood that directly or indirectly, soon or late, every advance in the sciences of human nature will contribute to our success in controlling human nature and changing it to the advantage of the common wheel.
There is no reasoning, no process of inference or comparison; there is no thinking about things, no putting two and two together; there are no ideas - the animal does not think of the box or of the food or of the act he is to perform.