Download Skinner`s views were slightly less extreme than those of Watson

Skinner Operant Conditioning
by Saul McLeod
published 2007, updated 2015
By the 1920s John B. Watson had left academic psychology and other behaviorists
were becoming influential, proposing new forms of learning other than classical
conditioning.
Perhaps the most important of these was Burrhus Frederic Skinner. Although, for
obvious reasons he is more commonly known as B.F. Skinner.
Skinner's views were slightly less extreme than those of Watson (1913). Skinner
believed that we do have such a thing as a mind, but that it is simply more
productive to study observable behavior rather than internal mental events.
Skinner believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of
an action and its consequences. He called this approach operant conditioning.
Skinner's theory of operant conditioning was based on the work of Thorndike (1905).
Edward Thorndike studied learning in animals using a puzzle box to propose the
theory known as the 'Law of Effect'.
Influential People:
Operant conditioning similarly know as instrumental learning, was observed as timely as
the early twentieth century by a man named Edward L. Thorndike. He initially
observed the behaviors of cats trying to escape from a homemade puzzle boxes.
Numerous trials were conducted when he noticed ineffective responses occurring less
frequently and successful responses occurring more frequently. In Thorndike’s law of
effect he theorized that behaviors followed by satisfying consequence tend to be repeated
and those who give unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated (McLeod,
2007).
The expressions of operant conditions and replied behavior was promoted and
simplified by Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly known as B.F. Skinner.
Skinner’s assessments of operant conditioning has allowed for further reasoning. In
fact, Skinner believed the efficiency to study and observe the brain was much more
productive versus studying the internal mental proceedings. Skinner believed the
best way to understand behavior was through the “cause of an action and its
consequences” (Skinner, 1935). Operant behavior denotes “a response followed by a
reinforcing stimulus” (Cherry, 2005).
References:
Cherry, K. A. (2005). Operant conditioning. Retrieved from
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopcond.htm
Skinner, B. F. (1935) Two types of conditioned reflex and a pseudo type Journal of
General Psychology, 12, 66-77.
McLeod, S. A. (2007). Edward Thorndike. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
Key Findings:
B.F. Skinner in 1938 devised the term “operant conditioning” by the changing of
behavior by the use of reinforcement that is given after the requested response.
Ultimemetly, Skinner identified three types of responses that can follow a behavior
(McLeod, 2015).
• Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor
decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated.
• Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a
behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative.
• Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a
behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.
Here is a better detailed link
References:
McLeod, S. A. (2015). Skinner - Operant Conditioning. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html