Learning Theory: Some Revised Basic Laws and Concepts of Performance, Reward, and Punishment1

Abstract

This paper has attempted to outline the basis for a new theory of learning. One important feature of the theory has to do with those respects in which it is not nevl--it has incorporated some ideas contained in presently competing theories into a formulation that offers the possibility of unifying these rivals. In addition, new suggestions concerning the analysis of performance, the interpretation of punishment and the role of information feedback in learning have been offered. Data from three experiments described in the paper have both supported predictions based on the nev theory and have indicated difficulties in previous interpretations of learning. These three experiments also demonstrated that the new theory has the desirable feature of lending itself readily to experimentation on human subjects.

Skill and Motivation as Separable Components of Performance

“…The author is indebted to Fred Damarin and Norman Frederiksen for critical readings of an earlier draft. "For elaborarion and discussion of relation to orher rheories, rhe reader is referred to Greenwald (1964). 'Rather than describing pertormance in terms of responses which necessarily change during the Learning process, the present analysis will define Skill and Motivation by reference to goals which tend to be easily specifiable and are assumed to remain constant during learning.…”