What theory did BF Skinner proposed?
The most important among these theories was Operant Conditioning proposed by Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly known as B.F. Skinner. Skinner based his theory in the simple fact that the study of observable behavior is much simpler than trying to study internal mental events.
What was B.F. Skinner really like?
He was also somewhat neurotic and extroverted: known as charming, funny-and a womanizer . In many respects, Skinner's is the profile of an eminent scientist-for his drive and discipline, creative versatility, and also for his neuroticism, a trait shared by as many as 45% of leading scientists, according to one analysis.
What type of psychology did B.F. Skinner study?
B. F. Skinner is perhaps best recognized for his study and contribution to a particular type of psychology called behaviorism. Behaviorism was first proposed by John Watson who believed that studying the private experience a person has in their mind was too hard of a thing to observe and speculate.
What did B.F. Skinner believed in as a behaviorist?
B. F. Skinner was an American psychologist best-known for his influence on behaviorism. Skinner referred to his own philosophy as 'radical behaviorism' and suggested that the concept of free will was simply an illusion. All human action, he instead believed, was the direct result of conditioning.
What did Skinner study in college?
During high school, Skinner started to develop an interest in scientific reasoning from his extensive study of the works of Francis Bacon. He went on to receive a B.A. in English literature in 1926 from Hamilton College.
What did Skinner study at Harvard?
Skinner was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard from 1959 to 1974. He completed his PhD in psychology at Harvard in 1931. He studied the phenomenon of operant conditioning in the eponymous Skinner Box, still used today.
What degrees does B. F. Skinner have?
Harvard University1931Hamilton College1926Hobart and William Smith CollegesB. F. Skinner/Education
When did B. F. Skinner go to Hamilton College?
Skinner majored in English and minored in languages. He would eventually earn his bachelor's degree in 1926 from Hamilton College (Skinner, 2013). After graduation, Skinner spent some time writing poetry and stories.
What is Skinner known for in psychology?
American psychologist B.F. Skinner is best known for developing the theory of behaviorism, and for his utopian novel 'Walden Two. '
Where did Skinner attend school?
Harvard University1931Hamilton College1926Hobart and William Smith CollegesB. F. Skinner/Education
What did B. F. Skinner study at Hobart and William Smith Colleges?
He submitted an application to study psychology at Harvard University and was accepted in 1928. Skinner received his master's degree in psychology in 1930. One year later, he earned his PhD in psychology.
What did Skinner do in Harvard?
While attending Harvard, a fellow student, Fred S. Keller, convinced Skinner that he could make an experimental science of the study of behavior. This led Skinner to invent a prototype for the Skinner box and to join Keller in the creation of other tools for small experiments.
What did Skinner do to develop behavior?
Skinner developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism, and founded the experimental analysis of behavior, a school of experimental research psychology. He also used operant conditioning to strengthen behavior, considering the rate of response to be the most effective measure of response strength. To study operant conditioning, he invented the operant conditioning chamber (aka the Skinner box), and to measure rate he invented the cumulative recorder. Using these tools, he and Charles Ferster produced Skinner's most influential experimental work, outlined in their 1957 book Schedules of Reinforcement.
How does Skinner explain complex behavior?
However, Skinner recognized that a great deal of behavior, especially human behavior, cannot be accounted for by gradual shaping or the construction of response sequences. Complex behavior often appears suddenly in its final form, as when a person first finds his way to the elevator by following instructions given at the front desk. To account for such behavior, Skinner introduced the concept of rule-governed behavior. First, relatively simple behaviors come under the control of verbal stimuli: the child learns to "jump," "open the book," and so on. After a large number of responses come under such verbal control, a sequence of verbal stimuli can evoke an almost unlimited variety of complex responses.
Why did Skinner argue that teachers must learn effective ways of teaching?
Because teachers are primarily responsible for modifying student behaviour, Skinner argued that teachers must learn effective ways of teaching. In The Technology of Teaching (1968), Skinner has a chapter on why teachers fail: He says that teachers have not been given an in-depth understanding of teaching and learning.
What is Skinner's theory of superstition?
Shaping was Skinner's term for the gradual modification of behavior by the reinforcement of desired variations. Skinner believed that 'superstitious' behavior can arise when a response happens to be followed by reinforcement to which it is actually unrelated. This can be seen, for example, with lucky socks that athletes wear. If they wear a pair of socks once and they win, but do not wear them for the next game and they lose, this reinforces the wearing of the lucky socks during games. The more it happens, the stronger the superstition will become.
What is Skinner's first book?
Skinner's ideas about behaviourism were largely set forth in his first book, Behaviour of Organisms (1938). Here, he gives a systematic description of the manner in which environmental variables control behaviour. He distinguished two sorts of behaviour which are controlled in different ways:
Who was Skinner challenged by?
Challenged by Alfred North Whitehead during a casual discussion while at Harvard to provide an account of a randomly provided piece of verbal behaviour, Skinner set about attempting to extend his then-new functional, inductive approach to the complexity of human verbal behaviour. Developed over two decades, his work appeared in the book Verbal behaviour. Although Noam Chomsky was highly critical of Verbal behaviour, he conceded that Skinner's "S-R psychology" was worth a review. (behaviour analysts reject the "S-R" characterization: operant conditioning involves the emission of a response which then becomes more or less likely depending upon its consequence.)
How did Skinner's theory work?
Skinner's theory works particularly well for behavioral modification, which is a program meant to change someone's behavior. It works less well in terms of learning whether students understand material or not.
What is learning behavioral psychology?
In Skinner's branch of psychology, behavioral psychology, learning is about changing behaviors. If a student who is talking when he is supposed to be listening to you changes his behavior and begins to listen, he has learned to listen. Likewise, if you are explaining to students how to add numbers and a student consistently answers with ...
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What is Skinner's most famous contribution to psychology?
He is best known for his scientific approach to studying human behavior and his contributions to behaviorism. Skinner believed all human behavior is acquired via conditioning and that free will is an illusion. The American Psychological Association ranks Skinner as the most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.
Who introduced Skinner to behaviorism?
This book highlighted the research of John B. Watson and introduced Skinner to behaviorism. He then read an article written by H.G. Wells about the work of Ivan Pavlov. Skinner was intrigued. He submitted an application to study psychology at Harvard University and was accepted in 1928.
How did Skinner test operant conditioning?
To test his theory of operant conditioning, Skinner conducted numerous animal experiments. Many of these involved the use of an enclosed chamber known as the ‘Skinner box.’ In one version of the experiment, a hungry lab rat is placed inside a Skinner box equipped with a lever. When pressed, the lever causes food pellets to be delivered to the rat. At first, the rat’s behavior is quite random as it explores its new environment. If by chance the rat presses the lever and receives a food pellet, its behavior soon changes. The food acts as a reinforcer, causing the rat to deliberately press the lever more frequently.
Why is Skinner criticized?
Skinner has also been criticized for ignoring the role of cognitive and emotional factors in learning. Some have argued that Skinner’s approach promotes a mechanical view of human nature in which humans are seen as slaves to the consequences of their actions. Contrary to what Skinner believed, studies have shown that reinforcement and punishment are not necessary for learning to take place. Behaviors can also be learned through observation and insight.
What did Skinner argue about private events?
He argued that private events (such as thoughts, feelings and perceptions) are not fitting subject matters since they cannot be directly observed or studied in an objective manner. While Skinner agreed that observable behaviors should be the primary focus of psychology, he did not reject the role of internal events.
What was Skinner's most popular experiment?
He invented a number of devices for his experiments, the most popular of which was the “Skinner box.”. Over time, Skinner developed his own version of behaviorism called radical behaviorism. In 1936, Skinner accepted a teaching position at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis.
Who was Skinner's biggest influence?
Ivan Pavlov was one of Skinner’s biggest influences. Skinner adopted Pavlov’s belief that if you can control the environment, you can see the order in behavior. The majority of Skinner’s research involved animal studies with rats or pigeons.
What did Skinner do at Harvard?
At the age of 24 Skinner enrolled in the Psychology Department of Harvard University. Still rebellious and impatient with what he considered unintelligent ideas, Skinner found a mentor equally caustic and hard-driving. William Crozier was the chair of a new department of Physiology. Crozier fervently adhered to a program of studying the behavior of “the animal as a whole” without appealing, as the psychologists did, to processes going on inside. That exactly matched Skinner’s goal of relating behavior to experimental conditions. The student was encouraged to experiment. Each department, Psychology, and Physiology, assumed the other was supervising the young student, but the fact was he was “doing exactly as I pleased”. With his enthusiasm and talent for building new equipment, Skinner constructed apparatus after apparatus as his rats’ behavior suggested changes. After a dozen pieces of apparatus and some lucky accidents (described in his A Case History in Scientific Method), Skinner invented the cumulative recorder, a mechanical device that recorded every response as an upward movement of a horizontally moving line. The slope showed rate of responding. This recorder revealed the impact of the contingencies over responding. Skinner discovered that the rate with which the rat pressed the bar depended not on any preceding stimulus (as Watson and Pavlov had insisted), but on what followed the bar presses. This was new indeed. Unlike the reflexes that Pavlov had studied, this kind of behavior operated on the environment and was controlled by its effects. Skinner named it operant behavior. The process of arranging the contingencies of reinforcement responsible for producing this new kind of behavior he called operant conditioning. Because of a fellowship, Skinner was able to spend his next five years investigating not only the effect of following consequences and the schedules on which they were delivered, but also how prior stimuli gained control over behavior-consequence relationships with which they were paired. These studies eventually appeared in his first book, The Behavior of Organisms (1938).
When was Skinner in 4th grade?
When the younger was in fourth grade, on November 11, 1953, Skinner attended her math class for Father’s Day. The visit altered his life. As he sat at the back of that typical fourth grade math class, what he saw suddenly hit him with the force of an inspiration.
Why did Skinner train pigeons?
Anxious to help, Skinner sought funding for a top secret project to train pigeons to guide bombs. Working intently, he trained pigeons to keep pecking a target that would guide a missile onto an enemy ship. The pigeons pecked reliably, even when falling rapidly and working with warlike noise all around them.
What was the name of the book Skinner wrote about a soldier who was just back from the war?
Skinner could never refuse a challenge. Almost immediately he began the book Walden Two. Walden Two was written fast, parts with much emotion. In it, a soldier just back from the war, invites friends and his former professor to visit a community called Walden Two , a group of about 1000 members.
What is Walden Two about?
When the war was about to end, Skinner attended a dinner party and mentioned to a friend that it was too bad that her son and other young people would come back to the old ways of doing things. She asked what Skinner would have them do instead. Skinner could never refuse a challenge. Almost immediately he began the book Walden Two. Walden Two was written fast, parts with much emotion. In it, a soldier just back from the war, invites friends and his former professor to visit a community called Walden Two, a group of about 1000 members. They go to the community. Its designer, Frazier, explains how the happy and the industrious behaviors they are seeing have been carefully shaped using behavioral techniques. He explains how the competitive urge of parents to favor their own children has been converted to a more equal concern for all youngsters by bringing up the babies communally rather than in families. Both women and men work. Jobs earn work credits weighted so that one can work for only a short time at undesirable jobs or longer at desirable ones. All aspects of the community have been planned. The book, after a slow start, became one of the best known works of Skinner’s, receiving both praise and condemnation.
How long was Skinner in the teaching machine?
By the end, a student was doing something he or she could not have done at the beginning. For about ten years, Skinner was caught up in the teaching machine movement, answering every one of thousands of letters from parents, schools, and business and industry.
What did Bacon champion in his work?
Bacon’s championing of the inductive method in science against the appeal to authority was to serve him well later. First Encounters with Behavioral Science. After attending Hamilton college, Skinner decided to become a writer. Moving back home he wrote little.
Who is B.F. Skinner?
Burrhus Frederic Skinner , also known as B.F. Skinner, is considered the “father of Operant Conditioning.” His experiments, conducted in what is known as “Skinner’s box,” are some of the most well-known experiments in psychology. They helped shape the ideas of operant conditioning in behaviorism.
How did Skinner find that rats learned to turn off shocks?
If the rats pushed the lever, the shocks would stop. Skinner saw that the rats quickly learned to turn off the shocks by pushing the lever.
How did Skinner place rats in a Skinner box?
Skinner would place the rats in a Skinner box with neutral stimulants (that produced neither reinforcement or punishment) and a lever that would dispense food. As the rats started to explore the box, they would stumble upon the level, activate it, and get food. Skinner observed that they were likely to engage in this behavior again, anticipating food.
Why did Thorndike use the lever?
Thorndike noticed that the cats would explore the maze and eventually found the lever. The level would let them out of the box (and lead them to the fish) faster. Once discovering this, the cats were more likely to use the lever when they wanted to get fish.
What is reinforcement in Thorndike's box?
Reinforcements are the rewards that satisfy your needs. The fish that cats received outside of Thorndike’s box was a reinforcement. In Skinner box experiments, pigeons or rats also received food.
What is Theodore's goal?
His goal is to help people improve their lives by understanding how their brains work. 1,700,000 Youtube subscribers and a growing team of psychologists, the dream continues strong!
Who was the psychologist who argued that rewards and punishments were important to shaping and encouraging voluntary behavior?
And, they needed a name for the process in which rewards and punishments shaped voluntary behaviors. Along came Burrhus Frederic Skinner , and the rest is history.
The Rat Experiment
In order to test the theory of operant conditioning, Skinner uses rats, and a mechanism he invented called the Skinner Box. The box is equipped with a lever. As long as the lever is pushed, it will supply food pills.
The Air-Crib
Skinner opened himself to some controversy when he used what is named the " Air-Crib" for his second child. This was an experimental chamber that controlled the environment around the child, so that it could sleep unencumbered by clothing or bedding.
Verbal Behavior Controversy
Skinner's book Verbal Behavior develops and supports his hypothesis that speech is the result of environmental factors. Skinner details the behavioral view and explanation of human language. Noam Chomsky, a linguistic researcher, countered Skinner's theory publicly.
Radical Behaviorism Controversy
Skinner's research and publications in radical behaviorism challenged traditional Western values about personality, our freedom, and our moral responsibility. Max Black wrote a response to Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity, which was an essay contradicting Skinner's operant conditioning theory.
Overview
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
Considering free will to be an illusion, Skinner saw human action as dependent …
Biography
Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, to Grace and William Skinner, the latter of whom was a lawyer. Skinner became an atheist after a Christian teacher tried to assuage his fear of the hell that his grandmother described. His brother Edward, two and a half years younger, died at age 16 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Contributions to psychology
Skinner referred to his approach to the study of behavior as radical behaviorism, which originated in the early 1900s as a reaction to depth psychology and other traditional forms of psychology, which often had difficulty making predictions that could be tested experimentally. This philosophy of behavioral science assumes that behavior is a consequence of environmental histories of reinforcement (see applied behavior analysis). In his words:
Scientific inventions
An operant conditioning chamber (also known as a "Skinner box") is a laboratory apparatus used in the experimental analysis of animal behavior. It was invented by Skinner while he was a graduate student at Harvard University. As used by Skinner, the box had a lever (for rats), or a disk in one wall (for pigeons). A press on this "manipulandum" could deliver food to the animal through an opening i…
Influence on teaching
Along with psychology, education has also been influenced by Skinner's views, which are extensively presented in his book The Technology of Teaching, as well as reflected in Fred S. Keller's Personalized System of Instruction and Ogden R. Lindsley's Precision Teaching.
Skinner argued that education has two major purposes:
1. to teach repertoires of both verbal and nonverbal behavior; and
Contributions to social theory
Skinner is popularly known mainly for his books Walden Two (1948) and Beyond Freedom and Dignity, (for which he made the cover of Time magazine). The former describes a fictional "experimental community" in 1940s United States. The productivity and happiness of citizens in this community is far greater than in the outside world because the residents practice scientific social planning and use operant conditioning in raising their children.
Political views
Skinner's political writings emphasized his hopes that an effective and human science of behavioral control – a technology of human behavior – could help with problems as yet unsolved and often aggravated by advances in technology such as the atomic bomb. Indeed, one of Skinner's goals was to prevent humanity from destroying itself. He saw political activity as the use of aversive or non-aversive means to control a population. Skinner favored the use of positive rei…
"'Superstition' in the Pigeon" experiment
One of Skinner's experiments examined the formation of superstition in one of his favorite experimental animals, the pigeon. Skinner placed a series of hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic mechanism that delivered food to the pigeon "at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird's behavior." He discovered that the pigeons associated the delivery of the food with whatever chance actions they had been performing as it was delivered, and that they s…