B F SKINNER

CHAIR PERSON: DR K V RAMIREDDY.

PRESENTER: DR SANGHAMITRA G.
Scheme of presentation

 Introduction
 Contributions
 Applications
 Criticisms
 References
1904 –1990
BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER –

• BORN- 1904, IN PENNSYLVANIA.

• 1926- GRADUATED FROM HAMILTON COLLEGE
• 1928-HE ENROLLED AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY TO
STUDY PSYCHOLOGY.
• IN 1936-MARRIED YVONEE BLUE AND THEY HAD 2
DAUGHTERS.
• IN 1938- RECEIVED HIS DOCTORATE AT HARVARD,
SKINNER TAUGHT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
MINNESOTA .
 In 1948- chairman of the Department of Psychology at
Indiana University.

 In 1950-at Harvard as a lecturer.

 In 1958 – received professorship.

 In 1989- diagnosed with leukemia.

 In 1990- He died at Massachusetts.

INVENTIONS
 Skinner Box

 Skinner became interested in studying human behavior

in an objective and scientific way. He developed what
he referred to as an operant conditioning apparatus,
which later become known as a "Skinner box."

 The device was a chamber that contained a lever or

key that an animal could press in order to receive
food,food dispenser,red and yellow light,electrified grid
 Cumulative recorder
 He invented the cumulative recorder, a device that recorded
responses as a sloped line.

 The rate of response is shown by the slopeof the response line.

 Higher response rates (steep slope)

 Lower response rates (shallow slope).

 The device also allowed Skinner to see that the schedule of

reinforcement influenced the rate of response.
 Later, Skinner examined behavior patterns
developed in pigeons using the box. The pigeons
pecked at a key to gain access to food.
Project Pigeon: Teaching Pigeons to Guide
Missiles and Play Ping Pong

 While teaching at University of Minnesota, Skinner

tried to train pigeons to serve as guides for bombing
runs during World War II.

 This project was cancelled, but he was able to teach

them how to play ping pong.
The Baby Tender

 In 1943,he created the enclosed heated crib with a

plexi glass window to his wife's request for a safer
alternative to traditional cribs.
 This clear box, called the "baby tender," was heated so
that the baby didn't need blankets. There were no slats
in the sides either, which also prevent possible injury.
 Ladies Home Journal printed an article on the crib with
the title "Baby in a Box," contributing in part to some
misunderstanding over the crib's intended use.
Skinner's Teaching Machines :
 He developed a math teaching machine that
offered immediate feedback after each problem.
However, this initial device did not actually teach
new skills.

 Eventually, he developed a machine that

delivered incremental feedback and presented
material in a series of small steps until students
acquired new skills, a process known as
programmed instruction.
 Skinner's works included in

The Behavior of Organisms (1938)

Walden Two (1948).

The Technology of Teaching(1968).

Beyond Freedom and Human Dignity (1971).

About Behaviorism(1974).
CONTRIBUTIONS TO
PSYCHOLOGY
 operant conditioning:
B. F. Skinner developed a theory of learning and behavior
known as operant conditioning.
 operant - a behavior that is changed as a result of its
consequences.

 operant conditioning is learning produced as a result of

behavioral consequences.

 It is behavior change that results from the association

between or among responses and their consequences.
 Positive reinforcement is the process by which certain
consequences of a response increase the probability that the
response will recur.
 Negative reinforcement is a process by which a response that leads
to the removal of an aversive event is increased.
 In punishement, a noxious stimulus or event where its onset is
contigent on a response, decreases the likelihood that the
response will occur again.
 In omission of reinforcement, positive reinforcer is withdrawn
following a response,that decreases the likelihood of response
 Negative reinforcement
Escape learning –the learned response is made
after the onset of a noxious stimulus to terminate Avoidance Noxious
response stimulus
the noxious stimulus.

Avoidane learning-the learned response is Positively Avoidance

made before the onset of a noxious stimulus and reinforce response

thus prevents the learner from being exposed to

the noxious stimulus.
Safety
signal
The Timing of Reinforcement

 Operant is most effective when reinforcement rapidly

follows a correct response.

 In general, you will be most successful if you present a

reinforcer immediately after a response you wish to
change.

 Thus,a child who is helpful or courteous should be

immediately praised for her good behaviour.
OPERANT EXTINCTION
 Learned responses that are not reinforced gradually
fade away. This process is called operant excintion.

 Even after extinction seems complete, the previously

reinforced response may return.

 The brief return of an operant response after extinction

is example of spontaneous recovery.
 Shaping: an operant procedure in which a desirable
behavior pattern is learned by the successive reinforcement
of approximations to that behaviour.

 Stimulus generalisation: responses learned in the presence of

one stimulus will also be made in the presence of other similar
stimuli.

 Discrimination: stimulus control of behaviour-process of

learning to make one response to one stimulus and another
to other or no stimulus.
Schedules of reinforcement
Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule
Variable-ratio (VR)
schedule
Fixed-interval (FI) schedule
Variable-interval (VI)
schedule
Reinforcement is
provided after a fixed
number of responses
Reinforcement is provided
after a variable number of
responses.
Reinforcement is provided
at regular time intervals
Reinforcement is provided
after variable intervals of time.
High steady rates of
response & pause occurs
right after the
reinforcement occur.
Generate the highest rates
of response and there are
no pauses
increase in the rate of
responding at the end of
the interval & pause that
occurs immediately after
reinforcement is longer.
respond at a uniform high rate
 The Three-Term Contingency
 Behavior does not occur in a vacuum: certain environmental
events usually precede and follow behavior.
o The preceding event or antecedent.
o The behavioral event or the response.
o The following event or consequence.

 Thus operant conditioning occurs in the presence of certain

stimuli and is always followed by certain consequences only if a
response first occurs.
Applications
 The specific application of operant conditioning principles
became known as applied behavioral analysis.

 operant conditioning is applied in some forms of behaviour

therapy,or behaviour modification.

 The instrumental-conditioning forms of behaviour therapy

treat psychological disorders contingently
 By reinforcing socially adaptive behaviours and
 By extinguishing maladaptive ones.
 Behaviour may be shaped towards the desired final
modification through the rewarding of small, achievable
intermediate steps.

 In token economy, socially desirable behaviours are

rewarded with tokens that can be exchanged for other
material items or privileges.
Token economy :
 The goal is to provide an immediate reward for learning.
 Tokens have been used in
institutions,classrooms,prisons,in other settings.

 Advantage of tokens is that they don’t lose reinforcing

value as quickly as primary reinforcers do.
 Disadvantage is that the improvements people make
when such token systems are present do not hold up
when tokens are no longer given .
 Aversion Therapy
 When a noxious stimulus (punishment) is presented immediately after
a specific behavioral response,the response is eventually inhibited
and extinguished.
 Many types of noxious stimuli are used: electric shocks, substances
that induce vomiting , punishment, and social disapproval.
 The negative stimulus is paired with the behavior, which is thereby
suppressed.
 Aversion therapy has been used for alcohol abuse, paraphilias, and
other behaviors with impulsive or compulsive qualities.
covert sensitisation- a method of reducing the frequency of
behavior by associating it with the imagination of unpleasant
consequences
 Extinction-time out from reinforcement:
 positive reinforcement - reduced.
 Decreases inappropriate behaviors.

 Differential reinforcement: consists of giving positive

reinforcement for desired behaviours and with-
holding it in their absence.
 programmed learning
 In programmed learning,the material to be learned is broken
into small, easy steps.

 Since each step is easy,the learner makes few errors and has
a sense of accomplishment.

 It allows learners to proceed at their own pace & to receive

immediate feedback on the correctness of their responses.
personalised system of instruction
• An essential idea is that the material in the course is
divided into small units, each of which must be mastered
at a high level of proficiency before the next unit is
attempted.

• Students set their own pace because they can take the
examination on a unit whenever they feel ready.

• Being allowed to go on to the next unit of material after

the mastery of the previous one serves as positive
reinforcement in this system.
 In business operations - applications of
reinforcement principles can often increase
employee productivity and company profits.
 Criticisms of B. F. Skinner’s Theory
 One of the major critics of Skinner’s theory is
Alfie Kohn.
 Not a natural behaviour devoid of willful choice.
 Themore humans become used to them and the
more expect them.
 Humans fail to find motivation in the absence of a
promised reward.
 mostof the experiments, studies often involved
animals other than humans .
 Rand and Chomsky- Skinner’s empirical evidence is
non-transferable to the complexity that exists in
human’s ability to communicate and respond to a
variety of environmental influencers.

 Hannah - against his studies' reliance upon

laboratory experiments with animals.
 References :

• Kaplan and sadock’s

comprehensive textbook of
psychiatry, 11th Edition.
• Morgan & king Introduction to
Psychology,7th Edition
• Atkinson & Hilgard's Introduction to
Psychology, 15th Edition.
• bfskinner foundation.org