In: Operations Management
1. What is Thorndike's Law of Effect? Explain its significance with reference to reinforcement theory.
Thorndike's Law of Effect stated that any behavior followed by pleasant consequences (reward) have a tendency to be repeated while any behaviour followed by unpleasant consequences (punishment) have a tendency to be stopped.
This theory is the basis for the reinforcement theory. In reinforcement theory also the shapping of behaviour is done either by positive or negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is often confused as punishment but it is not the same. Punishment attempts to decrease the probability of specific behaviors while negative reinforcement attempts to increase desired behavior. An example of negative reinforcement is: If the sales representative does particularly well in one region (behavior), she is rewarded by not being asked to work in more challenging regions where sales have been difficult to achieve (negative reinforcement).
A summary of it is given in the table below: