Question

What researcher would argue that the most important condition of learning is that the conditioned stimuli and unconditioned stimuli occur closely together?

A. Premack
B. Thorndike
C. Watson
D. Guthrie

Answer 1

D. Guthrie

Edwin Ray Guthrie is a behavioral scientist, well known for his theory that all learning is based on stimulus-response pairing. His studies focused on the following three principles:

• The principle of association - Stimulus accompanying a behavior or immediately preceding it becomes a cue for that specific behavior in a given time frame (precedes it by less than half a second).
• The principle of postremity - Stimulus that is followed by more than two responses, becomes associated with the response that is closest to the stimulus (occurring closely together).
• The principle of response probability - Chances of a particular response occurring at a specified time is related to the number of cues of the stimulus presented at the specified time.