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Outline• B.F. Skinner
– Biography– Theoretical notions
> Respondent and Operant Behaviour> Operant Conditioning Principles> The Skinner Box> Shaping and Extinction> Superstitious behavior> Discriminative responding> Secondary reinforcers
“Stimulus, response! Stimulus, response! Don’t you ever think?”
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Biography– Wanted to be writer
>B.A. in English Literature (1926)– Entered graduate school at Havard (1928)
>Mentored by the Chair of Physiology (W. Crozier) Who studied the “animal as a whole” without
appealing to internal processes.>Obtained his Ph.D. in 1931
– Taught at University of Minnesota (1936 - 1945)>Published “The Behaviour of Organisms” (1938)
– Affiliated with Havard until he died (1990)
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Biography– Inventions
> The air-crib Easily-cleaned, temperature and humidity-controlled Somewhat controversial (but effective) Commercially manufactured
>Project pigeon Received a 25K grant to develop a cruise missile
• Guided by trained pigeons• U.S. Navy passed on it
(but retested the idea in the 1980s)
B. F. Skinner
• Biography– Inventions
> The Skinner Box (AKA, operant chamber) Animal can respond multiple times Operant response: Bar pressing Operant conditioning: Increased bar pressing when food is
delivered following the response.
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Biography– Inventions
> Cumulative recorder Keeps track of the animal’s responding
• Time is recorded on the ‘X’ axis• Total number of responses is recorded on the ‘Y’ axis• Faster rates of responding lead to steeper slopes
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Major Theoretical Notions– Respondent and operant behaviour
>Respondent behaviour - Behaviour elicited by a known stimulus
E.g., Unconditioned responses• Elicited by unconditioned stimuli• Reflexive
>Operant behaviour - Behaviour not elicited by a known stimulus
E.g., Most of our everyday behaviour• Occurs spontaneously
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Major Theoretical Notions– Type S and Type R conditioning
> Two kinds of conditioning Type S (respondent conditioning) - classical
(Pavlovian) conditioning• ‘S’ to emphasize the role of the eliciting Stimulus• Strength is measured by the magnitude of the CR
Type R (operant conditioning) - learning that involves operant behaviour
• ‘R’ to emphasize Response• Strength is measured by the response rate
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Major Theoretical Notions– Type S and Type R conditioning
> Comparison with Thorndike’s approach Thorndike’s puzzle box
• Dependent variable was time-to-solution-> I.e., how long it took to learn a (single) response
Skinner• Dependent variable was rate of responding
-> I.e., What variables affect the rateof responding
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874 - 1949)
• Major Theoretical Notions– Operant conditioning principles
>Two general principles Any response that is followed by a reinforcing
stimulus tends to be repeated A reinforcing stimulus is anything that
increases the rate with which an operant response occurs
• I.e., anything that increases the probability of a response’s re-occurring
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Major Theoretical Notions– Operant conditioning principles
>Contingent reinforcement Emphasis on behaviour and its consequences
• Gaining reinforcement depends (i.e., is contigent) on making the appropriate response
Culture as a set of reinforcement contigencies• Different cultures reinforce different behaviour