Trial and Error Learning

Trial and error is a method of learning in which an individual makes repeated, varied attempts at a task until one succeeds, without necessarily understanding in advance why a given attempt will work. Edward Thorndike established the scientific study of the process in the late nineteenth century by timing cats as they learned to escape puzzle boxes, finding that responses followed by a satisfying outcome were gradually strengthened, a finding he formalized as the law of effect. The method requires little prior knowledge of a problem and, unlike insight-based problem solving, offers no explanation of why the successful response works.