B. F. Skinner Research Paper

This essay will look at the work of two very famous behaviourists. It will consider the differences and similarities as well as give descriptive detail of their actual experiments and see if any contribution was provided to mankind. It will focus on the theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning which occurs through interaction with the environment. As this was done by experimenting with animals, it is also necessary to consider the rules and restrictions that are needed to be kept in mind as research ethics applies to any experiments done on any living thing.

B.F Skinner was an American Psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber. The chamber he set up had rats in it and a lever, once the rats pulled the lever they were given a piece of food. After this happened the rate of bar pressing would increase dramatically and remain high until the rat was no longer hungry. He was a firm believer of the idea that human free will was actually an illusion and any human

Thereby, Skinner produced experiments whereby rats would navigate through mazes to achieve the goal of a box containing food. His interest was the behaviour of the rat, taking the right turn to achieve the desired result, food. To begin with the rats would take the wrong turn but with experience, they became more skilful. The rats learning behaviour was measured in two ways, firstly the length of time it took from start to end and secondly, the reduction in errors. This was a lengthy experiment which led Skinner to produce ‘the Skinner box’. Whereby, rats learnt to press a lever and pigeons learnt to peck a key in order to attain food, also known as behaviour shaping. This experiment lacks ecological validity as the animals are kept in a controlled environment which is dissimilar to their natural habitat. However, the results which were attained could not have been possible in natural circumstances. Skinner wanted to observe if behaviour could be learned through reaching a desired outcome such as positive reinforcement which needed to be

Psychologist, born in Susquhanna, Pa. He studied at Harvard, teaching there (1931-6, 1947-74). A leading behaviorist, he is a proponent of operant conditioning, and the inventor of the Skinner box for facilitating experimental observations.

B.Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born in the year 1904 to 1990, he was known as an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor and social philosopher. Burrhus focused on the illusion of free will and human actions that depended on consequences of previous actions. If the consequence where bad the more likely it would not be repeated, if they where good consequences the higher chance it would be

B.F. Skinner and his theories on learning and

B.F. Skinner, born on March 20th 1904, was an American behavioural psychologist who carried who carried out many experiments based on how behaviour is shaped and that all humans will regurgitate the things they enjoy doing and avoid those they dislike. He understood that creative people will be rewarded positively in order for that person to take an interest in that particular activity and develop further. He based his theories on self-observation,

B.F. Skinner, the man who set the gold standard for shaping in behavioral anyalisis, known for his animal experiments using boxes built his way into becoming America’s leading neo-behaviorist. Skinner entered into the experimental world almost unintentionally, starting out life to become a novelist then completely switching gears on a whim of curiosity. Skinner didn’t start with a plan, he just had a question, he wanted to understand the behavior of living things. Thus, forming his infamous boxes, not knowing where it would lead him, but wanting to see it something was going to come from it.

He thrived during high school, the principle took special interest in him can told Skinner, “you were born to be a leader of men. Never forget the value of a human life” (10). Even though Skinner had yet to show signs of leadership, many people in his life had already witnessed leadership qualities in him and were encouraging him, “there was something about his demeanor, self-containment, assurance, and assertiveness that suggested his potential for “leadership” in some… unpredictable way” (11). Skinner entered college in 1922 and adapted to it quickly (18). There his desire for autonomy grew, he felt a “sense of relief form even such a minimal constraints as he has experienced at home” (18).

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born and raised in Susquehanna, a little town in Pennsylvania on March 20,1904 (B.F. Skinner Foundation, 2014;Biography.com Editors, n.d.). He was an imaginative and inventive child that built different mechanism which included, a cart that steered backwards, a perpetual motion machine, and a flotation device that separated ripe from unripe fruit (B.F. Skinner Foundation, 2014). As he grew older, he also showed an interest in writing, and the ideas of Francis Bacon, whose ideas of inductive reasoning influenced Skinner (B.F. Skinner Foundation, 2014). According to the B.F. Skinner Foundation (2014) once in college Skinner chose to be a writer, he attended Hamilton and after graduating returned home and wrote a few articles which brought him little to no success. He later moved to New York and worked as a bookstore clerk where he stumbled upon the works of Pavlov and Watson, they held an impression on him and he strived to learn more (B.F. Skinner Foundation, 2014).

One of the most prominent and influential psychologists of the twentieth century, B.F. Skinner was known as a behavioral psychologist, philosopher of science, and an educational innovator. Throughout his life he did experimental work with animals to discover how patterns of behavior are learned. His initial work was primarily conducted with animals, and later in life he started to work with humans and apply his learning from his pigeon studies to human behavior. He focused on the individual and wrote about how to restructure social systems to improve the quality of life.

In 1931, Skinner received his Ph.D. and continued to work at Harvard for the next five years. In 1936, he married Yvonne Blue and started at a teaching position at the University of Minnesota. During the height of World War II, Skinner desired to help in the war effort and received funding from the Office of Scientific Research and Development for a project that would train pigeons to direct armed missiles. The project, known as "Project Pigeon", placed pigeons at the nose cone of a missile, and were trained to peck at the center of a target. The missile's guidance system was controlled by impulses generated by the pecking of the pigeons. The plan was never fully implemented, however Skinner managed to successfully condition and train

According to Gewirtz and Peláez-Nogueras (1992), “B. F. Skinner contributed a great deal to advancing an understanding of basic psychological processes and to the applications of science-based interventions to problems of individual and social importance.” He contributed to “human and nonhuman behavior, including human behavioral development, and to various segments of the life span, including human infancy” (p. 1411). One of Skinner's greatest scientific discoveries was “single reinforcement” which became sufficient for “operant conditioning, the role of extinction in the discovery of intermittent schedules, the development of the method of shaping by successive approximation, and Skinner's break with and rejection of stimulus-response

He also read about animals. He collected toads, lizards, and snakes. He trained pigeons to do tricks after he saw them performing one year at a fair. Training the pigeons probably was where he got his ideas of operant conditioning. He attended Susquehanna High School just like his mother and father. In his graduating class there were only eight people including him. He was a very intellectual person. He reported that he really enjoyed school. Over the four years in high school Skinner became good at math and reading Latin, but was no good at science. He was always performing physical and chemical experiments while he was at home. His father was a book collector. Skinner always had a good library of books around his house. Skinner recalled the little collection of applied psychology journals that his father had bought. Those books could have been the starting point in his psychology career. Skinner grew up in a very religious family.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Skinner was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and a social philosopher. Skinner is known for his discovery of the theory of operant conditioning (Wikipedia). Skinner was a graduate from Harvard University. Although he understood the importance of classical conditioning, he noted that, “principles of classical conditioning account for only a small portion of learned behaviors” (Woolfolk 250). Skinner expressed that through operant conditioning, behavior is strengthened or weakened by antecedents or consequences. Both theorists’ work have a major influence on learning/behavioral concepts.