Running head: B.F. SKINNER
B.F. Skinner
Edith M. Costa
University of Texas at Brownsville
1

B.F. SKINNER 2
B.F. Skinner
Biography
Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna,
Pennsylvania. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a housewife. (Vargas, 2005)
Skinner enjoyed working with his hands and spent most of his childhood building things like roller scooters, wagons and sleds. He invented several machines like the flotation system that he built to separate ripe from green berries, which he picked and sold from door to door (Swenson,
1999).
After he majored in literature at Hamilton College in New York, he decided to move to
New York City and become a writer (A Science Odyssey, 1998). During his time there he worked for a few months as a bookstore clerk where he came upon books by Pavlov and Watson.
He found them very exciting and was then inspired to learn more about psychology. At age 24 he enrolled in the Psychology Department of Harvard University (Vargas, 2005). The department was primarily immersed in thoughtful psychology but Skinner found himself leaning toward behaviorism. He began experimenting using rats and conducted behavioral studies. He constructed and designed many boxes (later on called “Skinner boxes”) that would provide a stimulus that was reinforced to create a new kind of behavior, he then named operant conditioning. (A Science Odyssey, 1998) This would be one of his greatest contributions to psychology.
Skinner received his masters in psychology in 1930 and in 1931 his PhD (St. Rosemary
Educational Institute, 2012). During World War II, airplanes and bombs were very common but there were no missile guidance systems, Skinner was very anxious to help out so he

B.F. SKINNER received funding for a top secret project that would use pigeons to guide missiles. Although this project was discontinued, his works lead him to discover that pigeons behave more rapidly than rats. He never again worked with rats. (Vargas, 2005)
On November 11, 1953, Skinner attended his son’s fourth grade class. This visit would alter his life for the next ten years. In the class, he observed that the teacher was going against almost everything he knew about the learning process. He researched the implications of a delay in reinforcement and how it affected children’s performance. He saw the need that teachers had of having 20 students in a classroom and not being able to provide feedback until the students had completed the whole assignment and for her to grade it, and that same afternoon he constructed his first teaching machine. His first machine presented students with problems in a random order, with comments after each one. It took Skinner three years to develop a programmed instruction that would allow students to improve with less and less help given.
(Vargas, 2005) Computer-based self-instruction follows many of the principals of Skinner’s method (A Science Odyssey, 1998).
Skinner is considered as one of the most influential psychologist of the 20th century creating a new brand of “radical behaviorisim.” He was a highly productive author who published 21 books and 180 articles. (B.F. Skinner Biography, 2012) In 1989 he was diagnosed with leukemia but he still continued to be very active. Ten days before his death he gave a lecture at the American Physiology Association. He died in 1990. (Vargas, 2005)
Operant Conditioning
B. F. Skinner’s greatest contribution to psychology was his theory of operant conditioning. Skinner was greatly influenced by the work of Ivan Pavlov and John Watson, whom both laid the foundation for his work. Ivan Pavlov, a famous Russian psychologist,
3

B.F. SKINNER 4 introduced the theory of classical conditioning. He believed that an existing behavior is shaped by associating it with a new stimulus (stimulus-response) (DeMar, 1989). John Watson, an
American psychologist, is considered to be the founder of Behaviorism. He used experimental studies of the relations between events and human behavior. (John Watson, 2012) He believed that psychology was not concerned with the mind or with human consciousness but with behavior only (DeMar, 1989). Skinner’s vision was not as extreme as that of Watson’s, even though he believed the mind to be of significance in terms of psychology and behavior; he thought it was more useful to study apparent behavior rather than internal psychological events.
He believed that the best way to study behavior was to look at the cause of an action and its consequences. (McLeod, 2007)
Skinner studied operant conditioning by conducting experiments using animals (rats and pigeons) that he would place in a controlled environment (“Skinner box”). There he would shape the behavior of the animals by using reinforcements (food) after the desired response. (McLeod,
2007) Skinner recorded the responses of the animals on a device he created called the cumulative recorder (Vargas, 2005). He identified three types of responses that can follow a behavior; 1)
Neutral operants : responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. 2) Reinforcers : responses from the environment that increase the possibility of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative. 3) Punishers : responses from the environment that decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior. (McLeod, 2007)
Positive reinforcers are favorable events or outcomes that are presented after the behavior. In situations that reflect positive reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by the addition of something. Negative reinforcers involve the removal of an unfavorable event or

B.F. SKINNER 5 outcome after the display of a behavior. In these situations, a response is strengthened by the removal of something considered unpleasant. (Cherry, 2012) Skinner believed that positive reinforcement was the most successful form of response.
In operant conditioning, schedules of reinforcement are an important element of the learning process. When and how often a behavior is reinforced will have a great impact on the strength and rate of the response. There are two main types of reinforcements; continuous reinforcement and partial reinforcement. In continuous reinforcement, the expected behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs. This reinforcement should be used during the early stages of the learning process. Partial reinforcement in used only for part of the time. The responses take longer but it can be more effective. Fixed- ratio, variable- ratio, fixed-interval and variableintervals are the four ways used in partial reinforcement.(Cherry, 2012) Although Skinner’s work had flaws, most of his work is still used today in establishing daily instructional routines, discipline routines and in every computer-based learning application.
Application
Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning can be applied in an instructional setting to assist teachers in managing their classroom. During the first days of class a teacher must establish her rules, expectations and consequences. Utilizing a continuous reinforcement in teaching the expected behavior at the beginning will help establish a faster association between expected behavior and response. Once behavior is observed and reinforced several times then the adjustment is made for it to become a partial reinforcement. When creating the rules in the classroom the teacher should institute the positive consequences (reinforcements) as well as the negative consequences (punishment) that will take place if the rules are followed or broken. This

B.F. SKINNER 6 will assist in creating an effective environment were learning can take place without disruptive behavior.
Another way of using operant conditioning is when selecting a computer-based program to be utilized for self paced learners. This program must provide immediate feedback. Skinner believed that a delay in feedback would affect the child’s learning process. The tasks should be broken into sections that provide reinforcement for every task. This approach comes from
Skinner’s teacher machines. The use of computer-based programs will assist teachers in providing students an individualized, self paced instruction that will offer immediate feedback.
Creating an effective learning environment that will motivate and adapt to the students individual needs.
Thanks to Skinner’s contribution of operant conditioning, teachers are able to manage their classroom behavior more effectively creating a better learning environment. Utilizing computer-based programs will permit students to receive feedback on their progress in mastering a variety of subject matters while simultaneously shaping students to become more skilled in wide-ranging behaviors such as reading comprehension.

B.F. SKINNER 7
References
B.F. Skinner Biography (2012, July 13). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved July 25,
2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.F.Skinner_Biography
Cherry, K. (2012). Introduction to Operant Conditioning. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopcond.htm
Cherry, K. (2012). Schedules of Reinforcement. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm
DeMar, G. (1989, April 1). Behaviorisim. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0497_DeMar_-_Behaviorism.html
John Watson. (2012, July 22). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved July 25, 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Watson
McLeod, S. (2007). B. F. Skinner- Operant Conditioning. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html
A Science Odyssey (1998). People and Discoveries: B.F. Skinner. Retrieved July 15, 2012, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhskin.html
St. Rosemary Educational Institute (2012, August 22). B.F. Skinner: Biography, Theories,
Contributions. Retrieved July 15, 2012, from http://schoolworkhelper.net/2010/08/b-fskinner-biography-theories-contributions/
Swenson, C. (1999, May). Burrhus Frederic Skinner. Retrieved July 15, 2012, from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/skinner.htm
Vargas, J. S. (2005). Brief Biography of B.F. Skinner. Retrieved July 15, 2012, from http://www.bfskinner.org/BFSkinner/AboutSkinner.html

B.F. SKINNER 8

B.F. SKINNER 9

B.F. SKINNER 10