Epistemology: Connectionism

Connectionism

• Overview:  The connectionist learning theory of E. Thorndike represents the original stimulus-response (S-R) framework which formed the basis of behavioral psychology: Learning is the result of associations forming between stimuli and responses.
  
  Connectionist theory consists of three primary laws: (1) law of effect - responses to a situation which are followed by a rewarding state of affairs will be strengthened and become habitual responses to that situation, (2) law of readiness - a series of responses can be chained together to satisfy some goal which will result in annoyance if blocked, and (3) law of exercise - connections become strengthened with practice and weakened when practice is discontinued.
  
  Another concept introduced was "polarity" which specifies that connections occur more easily in the direction in which they were originally formed than the opposite.
  
  Connectionism also introduced the "spread of effect" idea, i.e., rewards affect not only the connection that produced them but temporally adjacent connections as well.
  
  More...............................  Connectionism