The law of preparation is the preparation of learners at the beginning of learning. Learners are satisfied with activities when they are prepared. They are tired of being prepared but not taking the initiative, and they are tired of being forced to do activities when they are not prepared.
Thorndike observed in his experiment that in order to ensure learning, cats must be hungry. If the cat is full, after putting it in the puzzle box, it will probably not show any behavior of learning to escape from the puzzle box, but curl up and sleep there. Therefore, the interpretation of learning must include some kind of motivation principle.
This is what he called the law of preparation. In other words, whether a learner will respond to a certain stimulus is related to whether he is ready. The law of preparation. This law consists of three parts:
(1) When a command unit is ready to command, command without any interference will cause a sense of satisfaction.
(2) When a conducting unit is ready to conduct, it will cause trouble if it is not conducting;
(3) When a conductive unit is not ready for conduction, forced conduction will cause trouble.
Thorndike's Theory of Trial and Error Learning
The process of learning is a gradual process of trial and error, and it is the connection between stimulating situation and correct response. Including the three principles of learning:
(1) The law of preparation refers to the preparation set by learners at the beginning of learning, including three states: learners feel satisfied when they are prepared and give activities, feel annoyed when they are prepared but don't give activities, and feel annoyed when they are forced to do activities without preparation.
(2) Practice method includes application method and abandonment method. Refers to the learned connection between stimulus and response. If applied, the connection will be strong, otherwise, the strength of the connection will be weakened.
(3) The law of effect refers to the influence of stimulus-response interaction on the results of reaction. If the reaction leads to satisfactory results, the connection can be enhanced; If the reaction leads to unpleasant results, the connection will be weakened.
Thorndike's learning theory has guided many educational practices, such as the law of effect guiding people to use some specific rewards to encourage students to learn; Practice method guides people to consolidate their learning achievements through repeated exercises. However, the defect of Thorndike's learning theory is that it oversimplifies the essence of the learning process, which is caused by historical limitations.