Research overview: puzzle-box experiments and the law of effect

Some of the founding experiments of comparative psychology used cats in puzzle boxes to study how animals learn to escape confinement. This overview surveys the historical work in which cats gradually reduced their escape times through trial and error, leading to the formulation of the law of effect, that behaviours followed by satisfying outcomes are strengthened. It discusses how these studies framed learning as incremental association rather than insight, the debates this provoked, and the lasting influence on behaviourism and learning theory. The topic situates the domestic cat at the historical origin of experimental animal learning research and its enduring conceptual legacy.