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Trial and error is a fundamental method of solving problems.〔Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, and the Sociology of Knowledge p94 p108〕 It is characterised by repeated, varied attempts which are continued until success,〔Concise Oxford Dictionary p1489〕 or until the agent stops trying. According to W.H. Thorpe, the term was devised by C. Lloyd Morgan after trying out similar phrases "trial and failure" and "trial and practice".〔Thorpe W.H. The origins and rise of ethology. Hutchinson, London & Praeger, New York. p26. ISBN 978-0-03-053251-1〕 Under Morgan's Canon, animal behaviour should be explained in the simplest possible way. Where behaviour seems to imply higher mental processes, it might be explained by trial-and-error learning. An example is the skillful way in which his terrier Tony opened the garden gate, easily misunderstood as an insightful act by someone seeing the final behaviour. Lloyd Morgan, however, had watched and recorded the series of approximations by which the dog had gradually learned the response, and could demonstrate that no insight was required to explain it. Edward Thorndike showed how to manage a trial-and-error experiment in the laboratory. In his famous experiment, a cat was placed in a series of puzzle boxes in order to study the law of effect in learning.〔Thorndike E.L. 1898. Animal intelligence: an experimental study of the association processes in animals. ''Psychological Monographs'' #8.〕 He plotted learning curves which recorded the timing for each trial. Thorndike's key observation was that learning was promoted by positive results, which was later refined and extended by B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning. Trial and error is also a heuristic method of problem solving, repair, tuning, or obtaining knowledge. In the field of computer science, the method is called generate and test. In elementary algebra, when solving equations, it is "guess and check". This approach can be seen as one of the two basic approaches to problem solving, contrasted with an approach using insight and theory. However, there are intermediate methods which for example, use theory to guide the method, an approach known as ''guided empiricism''. ==Methodology== This approach is far more successful with simple problems and in games, and is often resorted to when no apparent rule applies. This does not mean that the approach need be careless, for an individual can be methodical in manipulating the variables in an attempt to sort through possibilities that may result in success. Nevertheless, this method is often used by people who have little knowledge in the problem area. The trial-and-error approach has been studied from its natural computational point of view 〔X. Bei, N. Chen, S. Zhang, On the Complexity of Trial and Error, STOC 2013, http://arxiv.org/pdf/1205.1183v2〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Trial and error」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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