Response by Analogy. Thorndike also postulated by this fourth law that a person may learn in new situations by the resemblence it may have to prior experience. This law also is called the law of transfer or the theory of identical elements. Lastly, the law of associative shifting suggests that organisms may use similar responses from one stimulus to another. This is close to the stimulus substitution theory which says that one stimulus may come to represent another stimulus so will elicit the same response from an organism.
Advertisers use stimulus substitution when using sexy models to show cars.
Theories Thorndike is perhaps one of several psychologists to have lived long enough to make revisions on his own theory throughout his life. The other notable aspect to this fact is that he himself admitted to being wrong about some things. The first thing he said he was wrong about was his law of exercise. The repetition of a situation may change a man as little as the repetition of a message over a wire changes the wire. In and of itself, it may teach him as little as the messages teaches the switchboard . . .