Puzzle box

The puzzle box made by Thorndike was a cage that a cat was placed in. There was a system that the cat could release itself by pulling a string to release a lock, stepping on a lever to release a second lock, and flipping a latch to open the door. Some food was placed just out of reach to encourage the cat to escape by learning how to operate the latch.

The cat usually displayed random behaviours like clawing or meowing. At some point the cat would display the correct behaviours which opened the door and this was by accident. After many trials there were less random behaviours until learning was complete.

Thorndike recorded the number of wrong behaviours and the time that elapsed from the moment the cat was placed in the box until it opened.