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By: Michelle Lezama
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Burrhus Frederic Skinner
was an American
psychologist, inventor,
author and poet.
He developed the system
of operant conditioning
and developed his own
scientific philosophy
known as Radical
Behaviorism.
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Skinner was born on March 20,
1904 in Susquehanna,
Pennsylvania.
His father was a rising young
lawyer, his mother a housewife.
His brother died at the age of 16
from a cerebral aneurysm.
During his boyhood, Skinner had a
strong passion for building things.
Among his first projects were a cart
with steering that worked
backwards (by mistake) and a
perpetual motion machine (the
latter did not work).
Perpetual Motion Machine
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Skinner attended
Hamilton College in New
York and received his BA
in English.
He didn’t fit in very well,
not enjoying the fraternity
parties or the football
games.
In addition, he was an
atheist in a school that
required daily chapel
attendance.
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After graduation, he spent a
year at his parents' home in
Scranton, attempting to
become a writer of fiction.
He soon became disillusioned
with his literary skills.
During this time, Skinner
discovered the works of
behaviorist psychologists like
John B. Watson and Ivan
Pavlov.
He became especially
interested in their system of
classical conditioning.
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After some traveling, he decided to
go back to studying and enrolled in
Harvard University.
He got his masters in psychology in
1930 and his doctorate in 1931.
He stayed there to do research until
1936.
He then taught at the University of
Minnesota (Minneapolis) and later at
Indiana University, where he was
chair of the psychology department
from 1946–1947.
He returned toHarvard as a tenured
professor in 1948 and remained there
for the rest of his career
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He met and married
Yvonne Blue in his years
at the University of
Minneapolis.
They had 2 daughters;
Julie and Deborah.
On August 18, 1990, B. F.
Skinner died of leukemia
after becoming perhaps
the most celebrated
psychologist since
Sigmund Freud.
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Skinner was still rebellious and
impatient with what he
considered unintelligent ideas.
In graduate school, a professor
named William Cozier
encouraged his ideas and helped
him develop his theories.
Skinner started constructing an
apparatus to study the behavior
of rats.
This cage (later named “Skinner
box”) had a bar or pedal on one
wall that, when pressed, caused a
little mechanism to release a
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R37djtako3I&f
food pellet into the cage.
eature=related
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Skinner discovered that the rate
with which the rat pressed the bar
depended not on any preceding
stimulus (as Watson and Pavlov
had previously stated), but on what
happened after the bar was
pressed.
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.
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Skinner had to make his own rat
pellets, a slow and tedious
task. So he decided to reduce the
number of reinforcements he gave
his rats for whatever behavior he
was trying to condition.
The rats kept operant behaviors at
a stable rate and this led him to
discover “schedules of
reinforcement”.
The measured behavior was as
regular as a pulse beat and marked
the beginning of the science of
behavioral analysis.
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Schedules of Reinforcement:
The fixed ratio schedule: If the rat pressed the
pedal three times he got a goodie. Or five
times. Or twenty times. Or “x” times. There is a
fixed ratio between behaviors and reinforcers: 3 to
1, 5 to 1, 20 to 1, etc.
The fixed interval schedule uses a timing device of
some sort. If the rat pressed the bar at least once
during a particular stretch of time (say 20
seconds), then he got a goodie. If he failed to do
so, he didn’t get a goodie. But even if he hit that
bar a hundred times during that 20 seconds, he
still only got one goodie.
Skinner also looked at variable schedules.
Variable ratio means you change the “x” each
time . First it takes 3 presses to get a goodie, then
10, then 1, then 7 and so on. Variable interval
means you keep changing the time period. First
20 seconds, then 5, then 35, then 10 and so on.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rst7dIQ4
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepqpTtK
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After accomplishing the invention of
this system, Skinner started asking
himself whether he could get more
complex sorts of behaviors using this.
He responded with the idea of shaping,
or “the method of successive
approximations.”
Basically, it involved first reinforcing a
behavior only vaguely similar to the one
desired. Once that was established, you
look out for variations that come a little
closer to what you want, and so on, until
the animal performed a behavior that
would never show up in ordinary life.
Skinner and his students have been
successful in teaching simple animals to
do some quite extraordinary things.
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Through his different findings and
the development of his system
known as operant conditioning,
Skinner developed a philosophy
known as Radical behaviorism.
It underlies the experimental analysis
of behavior approach to psychology.
The philosophy emerged during the
reign of behaviorism. However, it
bears little resemblance to other
schools of behaviorism.
It differs in aspects like the
acceptance of mediating structures,
the role of private events and
emotions, and other areas.
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It proposes that all actions
performed by an organism are
determined and not free.
It embraces the genetic and
biological endowment and
ultimately evolved nature of
the organism and brings about
a sort of mix between nature
and nurture.
It treats everything we do as
behavior, including private
events such as thinking and
feeling.
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Project Pigeon:
In 1944 World War II was in full swing. Airplanes and bombs were common, but there were no
missile guidance systems.
Skinner sought funding for a top secret project to train pigeons to guide bombs.
He trained pigeons to keep pecking a target that would hold a missile onto a target. The pigeons
pecked reliably, even when falling rapidly and working with warlike noise all around them.
Project Pigeon was discontinued because a more practical way of guiding missiles was
discovered.
Skinner discovered Pigeons behave more rapidly than rats, allowing more rapid discoveries of
the effect of new contingencies.
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Air Crib:
In an effort to help his wife cope with
the day to day tasks of child rearing,
Skinner thought he might be able to
improve upon the standard crib.
He invented the 'air-crib' to meet this
challenge.
An 'air-crib‘ is an easily-cleaned,
temperature and humiditycontrolled box Skinner designed to
assist in the raising of babies.
Air-cribs were later commercially
manufactured by several companies.
Air-cribs of some fashion are still
used to this day.
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Cumulative recorder:
The cumulative recorder is an instrument used
to automatically record behavior graphically.
Initially, its graphing mechanism has consisted
of a rotating drum of paper equipped with a
marking needle. The needle would start at the
bottom of the page and the drum would turn
the roll of paper horizontally.
Each response would result in the marking
needle moving vertically along the paper. This
made it possible for the rate of response to be
calculated by finding the slope of the graph at
a given point.
The cumulative recorder provided a powerful
analytical tool for studying schedules of
reinforcement.
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The Behavior of Organisms: An
Experimental Analysis (1938): First book
by Skinner. Proposes his theory about
operant conditioning.
Walden Two (1948): Perhaps Skinner’s
most important book. It modeled a
modern utopia were people developed
modeling his ideas about operant
conditioning.
Science and Human Behavior (1953): A
novel about applying science to human
affairs.
Verbal Behavior (1957): A merely
theoretical book about the study of the
behavior with language and linguistics.
Schedules of Reinforcement (1957): A
summary of the idea of schedules of
reinforcement in operant conditioning.
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Cumulative Record: A Selection of Papers
(1959): Different published articles written by
Skinner. Include a wide range of content.
The Analysis of Behavior: A Program for Self
Instruction(1961): Teaches the explicit
prediction and control of the behavior of
people.
The Technology of Teaching (1968)
Contingencies of Reinforcement: A
Theoretical Analysis (1969): A significantly
theoretical approach to his system of operant
conditioning and studying behavior.
Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971): One of
his most controversial books. Establishes him
as a social inventor and philosopher. The
novel makes a connection between his ideas
about behaviorism and the conflicts of
humans and society.
About Behaviorism (1974): Skinner defines,
analyzes and defends his controversial
philosophy about behaviorism.
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Particulars of My Life: Part One of an
Autobiography (1976): Skinner’s autobiography
since his birth to his acceptance in Harvard
University.
Reflections on Behaviorism and Society (1978)
The Shaping of a Behaviorist: Part Two of an
Autobiography (1979)
Notebooks (1980): A unique collection of entries
that reveal his thoughts, observation and opinions
on a wide variety of subjects.
Skinner for the Classroom (1982)
Enjoy Old Age (1983): Skinner deals with the topic
of aging and the mature human years.
A Matter of Consequences: Part Three of an
Autobiography (1983): Skinners autobiography
since his return to Harvard University as a
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T
professor.
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Upon Further Reflection (1987)
Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior (1989):
Another collection of papers.
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Burrhus Frederic Skinner has come to
be known as one of the most
influential and controversial
phsychologists in the 20th century.
His legacy in the field of psychology
and the study of human behavior in
social and scientific aspects created an
entirely new way of viewing the human
race and the existential philosophy.
A common type of therapy used in
different rehabilitation centers and
hospitals is known as behavior
modification and it is based on the
ideas of Skinner.
Skinner’s contribution to verbal
behavior has also helped in the field of
linguistics and in therapy for autism
and other similar disorders.
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1968 - National Medal of Science
from President Lyndon B. Johnson
1971 - Gold Medal of the American
Psychological Foundation
1972 - Humanist of the Year Award
1990 - Citation for Outstanding
Lifetime Contribution to
Psychology
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http://www.bfskinner.org/BFSkinner/AboutSkinner.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner#Inventions
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinner.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/b-f-skinner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_behaviorism
http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~allanr/books.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers
/p/bio_skinner.htm
http://www.biography.com/articles/BF-Skinner-9485671
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior_(book)