Edwin Guthrie

1. Edwin Guthrie By: Tammie Benson Tammy Steckler Shana Wetzel

2. Biography • Born January 9, 1886 • Father: Store Manager • Mother: School Teacher • Born and raised in Lincoln Nebraska • Five siblings • Married Helen MacDonald (1920)

3. Biography • University of Nebraska: Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Psychology, Philosophy and Math • University of Pennsylvania: Doctorate in Psychology

4. Taught High School in Nebraska Instructor at University of Washington: Psychology and Philosophy Became a professor 1928 at University of Washington Dean of Graduate School at University of Washington Became elected President of American Psychological Association Biography

5. Became elected President of American Psychological Association Lieutenant in the U.S. Army following WWII Consultant for Department of War and Office of War Information Died at age 72, April 23, 1949 Biography

6. Theory Development • Became a professor 1928, began to develop his learning theory along with Stevenson Smith • Became involved with Pierre Janet, influenced his development of Learning Theory, added concept of objective theory of learning • Became fascinated with introversion, extroversion, purpose, mechanism, fusion, and nonmusical intervals

7. Theory Development • Guthrie is a Behaviorist, studying the science of the observable • Contends, “ a combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement, will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement • Began to work with and develop introversion, extroversion, purpose, mechanism, fusion, and nonmusical intervals

8. Theory Development • Inspired by Philosopher Edgar Arthur Singer • Influenced by Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

9. Principle of Learning-Contiguity • Principle of “all or none” learning • Individual forgets a previous response to a stimulus, because a new behavior is found to be more beneficial • Inhibition system only allows one response to occur to a specific stimulus • Studied Cat’s in a box, and researched stereotypical behavior

10. Principle of Learning Contiguity • Believed disorder behavior was due to responses competing to occur to a particular stimulus, thus causing stress and confusion • One Trial Learning: some new skills (responses) can be acquired (learned) after doing it only once • Benefits of behavior are quickly recognized, and the behavior is shown again in the presence of the stimuli. No need for repeated practice

11. Implications • There are many stimulus elements and many response elements • Reinforcement simply changed the condition • Influenced mathematical learning theories and concept learning

12. Implications • Reward does not cause learning • Distinction fosters behaviors that are learned • Forgetting: replacing the old behavior with the new behavior

13. Conclusion • Edwin Guthrie’s Theory has been a major influence on Psychology Today. His Principles of Learning-Contiguity have helped explain some of the more complex and unexplained aspects of Pavlov’s classical conditioning • Guthrie’s Theory is comparatively short and to the point compared to other theorist, however he has greatly benefited the field of Psychology by expanding on existing concepts and developing new ones