Chance, P. (1999).
Thorndike's puzzle boxes and the origins of the experimental analysis of behavior.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
72, 433-440.
The year of Thorndike's dissertation on animal intelligence,
1898, may mark the beginning of the field that eventually became
known as the experimental analysis of behavior. The dissertation
began a major shift in thinking about animal and human learning,
provided important methodological innovations, and carried the
seeds of later research and theory, particularly by B. F.
Skinner. Although Thorndike was an associationist in 1898, the
dissertation began the systematic search for fundamental
behavioral processes, and laid the foundation for an empirical
science of behavior.
Key words: E. L. Thorndike, puzzle boxes, history, animal
intelligence, learning, problem solving, associations