Positive reinforcement (encouragement) rewards behavior and thereby supports it, while negative reinforcement supports behavior that eliminates an unpleasant stimulus. Thorndike formulated four basic laws of learning. The law of repetition (exercises). The more often the connection between the stimulus and the response is repeated, the faster it is fixed and the stronger it is. The law of effect (reinforcement). When learning reactions, those of them that are accompanied by reinforcement (positive or negative) are consolidated. The law of readiness. The state of the subject (the feelings of hunger and thirst he experiences) is not indifferent to the development of new reactions. The law of associative shift (contiguity in time). A neutral stimulus associated by association with a significant stimulus also begins to cause the desired behavior. Thorndike also singled out additional conditions for the success of a child’s learning: the ease of distinguishing stimulus and reaction and awareness of the connection between them. Operant learning occurs when the organism is more active, it is controlled (determined) by its results and consequences. The general trend is that if actions have led to a positive result, to success, then they will be consolidated and repeated. The labyrinth in Thorndike’s experiments served as a simplified model of the environment. The labyrinth method does to some extent model the relationship between the organism and the environment, but very narrowly, one-sidedly, and limitedly; And it is extremely difficult to transfer the patterns discovered within the framework of this model to the social behavior of a person in a complex organized society.