ContextIn 1898 Edward Thorndike developed the principle of the law of effect. He suggested that responses closely followed by satisfaction will become firmly tied to the situation and therefore are more likely to recur when the situation repeats (Cherry, 2014). Thorndike used animals, especially cats, to study how they learned; he devised an experiment in which he placed cats in a puzzle box and timed how long it took them to escape. At the end of the puzzle/maze place a reward to increase their motivation to escape and press the lever to open the door. When the cat escaped it was put inside several times and the time it took to escape was noted. In subsequent trials the cats would have learned that pressing the lever would lead to an extrinsic reward and would have adopted this behavior, becoming faster in pressing the lever (Mcleod, 2014). Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1948) devised a scheme to further demonstrate Thorndike's (1898) theory of learning behavior and motivation. Skinner is best known for his "Skinners Box" theory in which he studied the behavior of mice. He observed the mice and recorded how they would learn to initiate reinforcements and end punishments. He believed that the best way to understand behavior was to look at the causes of an action and its consequences; he called this “operant conditioning” ( Mcleod, 2014 ). Operant conditioning can basically be defined as changing behavior through the use of reinforcement after a desired response. Skinner developed three types of responses that can follow behavior: Neutral Operants, Punishments, and Reinforcements (Mcleod, 2014). Neutral Operants are responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability that a behavior will be repeated (M..... .middle of paper...the time needed to complete the requested task. Withdrawal rights are rights that a study participant has to stop participating in that study at their convenience (Wikipedia, 2014) that they can leave this study at any time, although strategies such as being friendly and relating to the younger child will be put in place to reduce. the child's withdrawal. The debriefing is the discussion that the participant and researcher have after the experiment (Dictionary.com, 2014). In the survey, participants will discuss with the researcher how they think the experiment went and will be given any further questions answered, they will also be told if they have any problems with the experiment to leave the school so they can call the researcher or talk to a counselor about any emotional trauma they may have experienced.