A CENTURY OF EFFECT - LEGACIES OF THORNDIKE,E.L. ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE MONOGRAPH

Edward L. Thorndike's monograph, Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals, is reviewed with respec t to three contemporary issues: the relation between human behavior an d that of other animals, the law of effect, and research methods for s tudying behavior. Thorndike employed an experimental analysis, rather than relying on either anecdote or naturalistic observation, to study problem solving and other behavioral processes of cats, dogs, and chic ks. His analysis focused on whether the similarities between humans an d other animals were homologous, that is, functionally equivalent, or whether they were merely analogous in form. Concluding the latter, he used the law of effect, not stated as such until long after the monogr aph was published, to account for the behavioral processes he studied, without appeal to reason or other cognitive mechanisms. His combinati on of applying experimental methods to the study of animal behavior an d his insistence on objectivity in behavioral description were prescie nt of such later behaviorists as Watson and Skinner.