B. F. Skinner
Behaviorism
Stephen Schrader
Education 101
Biographical information:
• Born March 20, 1904, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, in Susquehanna,
Pennsylvania.
• Received his BA in English from Hamilton College in New York.
• After being dissatisfied with attempts to become a writer, he moved
to Greenwich Village to live a “bohemian” life. From there he did
some traveling.
• He returns to his education at Harvard University, from there he
earns is masters degree in 1930 and doctorate in 1931, both in
Psychology, and stayed to do research until 1936.
• Went to teach at University of Minnesota in 1936, took the
chairmanship of the Psychology Department at Indiana University
in 1945, and returned to Harvard in 1948, where he stayed for the
rest of his career.
• "The major problems of the world today can be solved only if we
improve our understanding of human behavior" About Behaviorism
(1974)
Theories of Behaviorism:
• Classical conditioning- Pavlov’s experiments
-Pavlov would ring a bell, then present meat powder to a dog
which would result in salivation by the dog.
-After repeating the process many times, Pavlov would just ring the
bell, and before the meat powder was presented the dog would
begin to salivate.
-After more time Pavlov would just ring the bell, without providing
the meat powder. Eventually the dog stopped responding with
salivation to the bell. This process came to be called extinction.
Extinction- removal of stimulus results in the ending of the
conditioned response.
Theory continued…
• Skinner looked at the classical conditioning theory a little
differently. He thought that certain behaviors occur because of
reinforcement of that behavior in the past.
-Operant- the behavior that you are attempting to teach the subject
to do, that occurs just before the “reinforcer”.
-Reinforcing stimulus- “reinforcer”or prize
for demonstrating the right behavior. There is also an aversive
stimuli, which is just the opposite of the reinforcing stimuli, it is a
punishment, used to discourage a behavior.
Theory, again…
• Schedules of reinforcement- Reduction of the frequency of
reinforcement will not reduce the “learned” response or lead to
extinction of the response.
-Continuous reinforcement- simple operant conditioning, with a
1:1 stimulus to reinforcement ratio.
-Fixed ratio schedule- reinforcement supplied after a fixed
number of “behaviors”, which is fixed over multiple intervals.
-Fixed interval schedule- reinforcement is only given a set
number of times during a fixed set of time, e.g.: one reinforcement
per minute. No matter how many time the behavior is done in the
time limit, the reinforcement is limited to a fixed number.
-Variable schedules- both the schedule and the response ratio
change constantly. This prevents the subject from establishing the
pattern between behavior and reinforcement.
Theory, yet again…
• An example of reinforcement scheduling in a “Skinner Box”.
-At first the bird is pecking around the box, occasionally hitting the
correct contact, each time being reinforced by a small reinforcer,
such as a light.
-After eight pecks, the food is released.
-Over time the bird learns that if he continues to peck at the
specific spot a certain number of times he will get some food.
Theory, one last time….
• Shaping- how subjects learn complex behaviors. Skinner defines
this as “the method of successive approximations”.
-The process of shaping takes place by developing a behavior
similar to the goal. Once that is established you move on to a
slightly more similar behavior, slowly closing in on the “goal”
behavior each time
-Slide Story
Applications of Behaviorism:
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Behavior Modification- “training” a bad behavior away, using a
combination of negative and positive reinforcements.
-Can be used in classrooms to reinforce or discourage specific classroom
behavior. By giving praise or feedback for specific behaviors.
-”Token economy”- a system based on the behavior modification theory
and used in some institutions. “Tokens” are rewarded for good behavior
and taken away for bad behavior. The tokens can be exchanged for goods.
Using shaping, teachers can take apart a hard topic and cover individual
parts of it until they have finally completed it and can go through it
beginning to end.
-Music Education uses of Behaviorism
“Gifted” students
-Teachers should reinforce creativity from gifted students, but also set a
limit to how far that student can go in the class. Both of these steps
together encourage both the gifted students and the others to be active,
without too much discouraging.
Ormrod page 329, Table 9.3 has several other situations that may occur
and uses of behaviorism to deal with them.
Critiques
• Behaviorist approaches do not take into account cognitive factors
that may affect learning.
-Cognitive disabilities may require more than just simple
reinforcement to result in successful learning.
• Reinforcement begins to take precedence over the importance of
the task.
-Students may be encouraged to do a task more for the
reinforcement than for what they can gain out of it. Tasks are
completed faster to get reinforcement, but done less thoroughly.
-Tasks that students may have enjoyed before the reinforcement
was introduced begin to lose their importance if the reinforcement
is removed.(students become “addicted” to reinforcement)
• Behaviorist methods do not take motivation into account.
-students that are not motivated to do a task most likely will not be
that much more motivated to complete it even with reinforcement.
Source Materials
Boeree, C. George, “B. F. SKINNER”. ©1998.
http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/skinner.html
Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis, Educational Psychology: Developing Learners 4th
Edition. Merrill Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
©2003.
TechnoEd, “Curriculum Resources: B. F. Skinner”. ©1996-1998.
http://www2.potsdam.edu/CRANE/campbemr/curriculum/collegemethods/cognitive-theories/skinner-main,1.html
Zimmer, Gene, “B.F.Skinner: Behavioral Psychologist”. ©1999.
http://www.sntp.net/behaviorism/skinner.htm