This method of learning indicates that a person an animal can not find a way to come out of trouble instantly. But when they put efforts for this they learn. We can notice that as the trial increases, the time for earning and error both decrease. Let's understand an experiment Thorndike performed on a hungry cat. Experiment by Thorndike American psychologist Thorndike prepared a puzzle box in such a way that when the liver inside the box is pressed then only the door would open. Thorndike kept a hungry cat in the puzzle box and kept food just outside the box in such a way that the hungry cat could see it. The cat tried to come cut of the box to get food. It scratched and pulled at the bars of the puzzle box and roamed about in it. The cat tried to come out of the puzzle box but it didn't succeed. She did it again and again. Then, she pressed the lever of the puzzle box accidently and the door of the box opened. In this experiment, the pressing of the lever was accidental as the cat didn't know that the door of the box opened due to the pressing of lever. Thorndike put the cat again in the box. It again tried several times before it could push the lever. Thorndike continued his experiment for 24 days. On24th day, when he put the cat in the puzzle box, it pressed the lever immediately and came out of the box. This is how, the cat, Learned how to open the door of the box.
Basically in trial and error learning, as the trial increases, both time for learning and error decrease. In this experiment, the cat took 160 seconds in the first attempt to open the door but in the 24th attempt, it took only 10 seconds. Thus, gradually, the cat became quicker to escape from the puzzle box.
Hence, in trial and error learning, as trial increases, errors decrease and learning takes place without any error.