Thorndike, Edward Lee (1874–1949)

Edward Lee Thorndike was an undergraduate at Wesleyan University (B.S. in 1895) and then studied under William James at Harvard University (M.A. in 1897), where he began animal research in psychology. He moved to Columbia University to work with J. M. Cattell and continued his research with dogs, cats, and chicks. He created puzzle boxes with which he studied animal intelligence, and his work was published in a monograph, “Animal Intelligence.” He received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1898. He was President of APA in 1912.

Keywords: animal behavior; comparative psychology; law of effect; learning; reinforcement