Edwin Ray GuthrieBorn 9 Jan 1886; died 23 Apr 1959 at age 73.American psychologist whose work dealt with the psychology of learning and the role association plays. In his Law of Contiguity, he held that “a combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement, will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement.” He said that all learning is based on a stimulus- response association. Movements are small stimulus- response combinations. These movements make up an act. A learned behavior is a series of movements. It takes time for the movements to develop into an act. He believed that learning is incremental. Some behavior involves repetition of movements and what is learned are movements, not behaviors. |
