Healthy Frustration

On the theory that frustration impedes learning, educators use teaching machines designed to prevent all errors and reward all successes. Last week Columbia University Psychologist Herbert Terrace asserted that the theory is wrong; his experiments with pigeons demonstrate that it is not frustration but a complete lack of it that blocks the process of learning.

The trouble with "errorless" machines is that they fail to prepare students for the real world. There, "you don't always get paid off for doing the right thing, and you have to cope when you make a mistake." Without the ability to cope--or, as psychologists call it, "frustration tolerance"--both pigeons and people flip out when they come face to face with their own fallibility and the world's ingratitude.

In support of his view, Terrace cites the reactions of 200 pigeons, which were taught to distinguish red from green; they were rewarded with food when they pecked in response to a red light, but food was withheld when they pecked at the sight of green. Half got food every time they recognized the red light; for the others, reward was erratic.

When pigeons trained by the consistent method were switched to irregular reward, "they went to pieces," hitting their heads against the walls, flapping their wings, and pecking wildly at everything in sight. By contrast, birds trained on the intermittent system did not go wild when a correct peck failed to produce food. Instead, they stayed calm, continued to peck only at red, and soon were rewarded with the "deserved" snack.

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