contiguity theory1

8/8/2019 Contiguity Theory1

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Edwin Ray Guthrie (1886-1959), was a philosopher,mathematician, and later became a behaviorpsychologist. Guthrie is best known for his one trial theory,nonreinforcement, and contiguity learning. One word thatcould describe Guthrie is simple." His approach tolearning and theories was simple. His simplistic nature wascarried into his teachings where he took great pride inworking with and teaching students, especiallyundergraduate students (Clark, 2005). w34tw34t

Guthrie received a bachelors degree in mathematics

and a masters degree in philosophy from the University ofNebraska. He got his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University ofPennsylvania (1912). He taught high school math until hewas offered a position as a philosophy professor at theUniversity of Washington (1914). One of Guthriesinfluences was his professor in college, Harry Kirke Wolfe,who was one of Wilhelm Wundts Ph.D. students. In 1919Guthrie changed from philosophy to the department ofpsychology. He later became the dean of the graduateschool in 1943 and president of the AmericanPsychological Association (1945) (Clark, 2005).


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A stimulus or combination of stimuli that isfollowed by a particular response will, uponits reoccurrence tend to be followed by thesame response again. Thus, S-R connectionsgain its full strength on one-trail (Ormrod,1999) or on the first pairing of the S-Rconnection: contiguity, and notfrequency! (UCONN Department ofPsychology, 2006). According to Guthrie

repetitions neither strengthen nor weakenthe connection already made.


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1. Reward and punishment play NOsignificant role in learning: This is because

the reward and punishment areoccurring after the association betweenstimulus and response has beenmade. "According to this position what

arises is a principle called 'postremity'which says we always learn the last thingwe do in response to a specific stimulussituation" (Brooks, 2006).


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Guthrie's approach, according to Cech

(1998), is that "we ought to look at what

individual animals do, and not just atwhat the group as a whole does:

averaged learning may not represent

the type of learning found with

individuals."


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A Stimulus pattern gains its full

associative strength on the occasion of

its first pairing with a response Guthrie Learning is not dependent on

reinforcement because it comes afterthe association has occurred between

the stimulus and the response.


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The last action done in the presence of astimuli will tend to be done again if thesame circumstances are repeated. The

time relation between the substitutestimulus and the response is theimportant factor. When similarcircumstances are presented, the more

recent response will prevail. The S-Rconnections tend to grow weaker withlonger time intervals.


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After a response has been initiated by

an external stimulus, the body itself can

produce the stimulus for the nextresponse, and that response can furnish

the stimulus for the next one, and so on.


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Continue to present the stimulus until the

individual is too tired to respond in the

habitual way or too tired to produce the

old response. At this point, a new

response will occur and a new S-R habit

will form or the animal will do nothing.

Performing an act until the stimuli is nolonger enjoyable.


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Present the stimulus so faintly that the

individual does not respond to it in the

habitual manner. Then, increase theintensity of the stimulus gradually that the

individual continues NOT to respond to it.

Introducing the stimulus that is weak,

then gradually increasing its intensity.


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Present the stimulus when the habitual

response cannot occur and when an

opposite, or incompatible, response willoccur.

The stimuli for the undesired response arepresented along with other stimuli that

produce a response incompatible with

the undesired response.


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A cat learned to repeat the samesequence of movement associated withthe preceding escape from the box, butimprovement does take place.

A girl use to always throw her clothesaround after coming back home fromschool. Even after repeated admonishmentfrom her parents. One day her mother toldher to go out of the house, reenter and put

the clothes in order. The throwing on thefloor habit disappeared and the morerecent habit of cleaning-up responsebecame a new habit for the girl (Ormrod,1999).


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One of your instructors glares at you as shehands back the exam that she has just

corrected. You discover that you havegotten a D - on the exam, and you get anuncomfortable feeling in the pit of yourstomach. The next time your instructor

glares at you, the same uncomfortablefeeling returns (Ormrod, 1998).

Another instructor smiles and calls on youeverytime you raise your hand. Although

you are fairly quiet in your oter classes, youfind yourself raising yourhand and speakingup more and more frequentlyin this one(Ormrod, 1998).

contiguity theory1

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