A student tries many ways to build a stable tower by arranging blocks. After…

Concept: Thorndike's theory of trial and error learning (connectionism) states that when an organism faces a new problem, it tries out several different responses more or less at random. A response that produces a satisfying outcome is gradually strengthened (Thorndike's law of effect), while unsuccessful responses are gradually abandoned, until through repeated practice the successful response is performed reliably.

Application: In the scenario, the child tries several different arrangements of the blocks, and each unsuccessful attempt is followed by another attempt with a different arrangement. Only after multiple failed attempts does the child arrive at the arrangement that produces a stable, balanced tower — a satisfying outcome that confirms the successful response. This pattern of varied attempts, elimination of unsuccessful ones, and eventual success through repetition is exactly what trial and error learning describes.

Cross-check: The other three learning types describe a different mechanism from the one in the scenario:

• Observational learning is acquiring a behaviour by watching a model perform it and reproducing it later, without necessarily performing the response oneself during the observation stage; the scenario has no model being watched.

• Classical conditioning is the pairing of a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to trigger an automatic, reflex-like response; the scenario involves a voluntary constructive task, not a conditioned reflex.

• Insight learning is characterised by a sudden, qualitative reorganisation of the problem that yields the solution as a whole, rather than a gradual build-up; in the scenario, success comes through a step-by-step improvement across varied attempts, not a sudden restructuring of the whole problem.

The scenario therefore illustrates trial and error learning.