Katie Sanders
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REFERNCE 1
Reference Citation:
Holland, J. G. (1992). B. F. Skinner (1904–1990): Obituary. American Psychologist, 47(5),
665-667. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.47.5.665
Summarization Paragraph
In 1992, J.G. Holland wrote an obituary of B.F. Skinner’s life. In this article, Holland reviewed Skinner’s accomplishments throughout life and emphasized all of the groundbreaking work that Skinner has done in the field of behavioral science. Skinner was born in 1904 and began his work in behavioral science in 1928 when he enrolled in Harvard University. Unlike many scientists of his day, Skinner believed that by finding the right dependent variable and controlling environments correctly, behavior could be predicted and observed. He was famous for his “Skinner box” where he controlled the setting for a rat to act on its environment. He believed that once the environment was controlled, the individual would act on the environment to reveal the laws of behavior. Unlike other scientists at the time, Skinner studied individuals as opposed to groups. Skinner not only left behind a legacy in his studies of observable behavior analysis but also produced significant work in the analysis of verbal behavior as well.
Evaluation Analysis
I believe that the quality of this resource is high. It was written by a scholar of psychology from the University of Pittsburg and was published in the American Psychologist journal, a highly credible source. This resource is valuable because it breaks down the highlights of Skinner’s life and emphasizes what he is best known for. It takes a look back at his life and is able to point out significant impacts that he made in the field of psychology along the way and how that has also impacted the field of education. It is useful to get a good overview picture of who B.F. Skinner was and what led him to think and believe the way that he did. It would have been nice to have seen a little more detailed explanation of how Skinner controlled environments and observed behaviors other than by the use of his “Skinner box.”…how he was able to control environments and observe behaviors in the real world.
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REFERENCE 2
Reference Citation:
McLeod, S. (2007). Skinner: Operant conditioning. Simply Psychology, Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html
Summarization Paragraph
This article breaks down Skinner’s creation of operant conditioning and the principles of behaviorism. The goal of operant conditioning is to be able to determine the consequences of behavior by taking a look at the action itself. Skinner formulated the idea of operant

Katie Sanders conditioning from Thorndike’s “Law of Effect” and added the idea of reinforcement. Skinner believed that when a behavior is reinforced it will be repeated. He did his experiments of operant conditioning in a controlled environment named “the Skinner box.” Skinner defined 3 types of responses that can follow behavior: neutral (no change), reinforcers (increase the likelihood of the behavior) and punishers (decrease the likelihood of the behavior). He also discussed the concepts of positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement (which includes escape learning and avoidance learning). Skinner defined punishment as the opposite of reinforcement.
Skinner was a leading scientist in the field of behavior studies. He believed that psychology should be viewed and treated as a science, that behaviorism should focus on observable behaviors as opposed to mental events, and that the environment is a major influencer in human behavior.
Evaluation Analysis
This article was extremely helpful. It clearly defined operant conditioning and all of the elements that are associated with this process (positive/negative reinforcement). It traced the development of operant conditioning back to Thorndike’s “Law of Effect” which also made the process more clear and understandable. I believe that the resource is of high quality. At the end of the article, the author stated his sources which included 2 original works of Skinner as well as an original work of Thorndike. The author of this article also went to the trouble of providing several real-life examples of operant conditioning to simplify the process. I can better understand how operant conditioning is used in the field of education after reading this article. It would have been helpful to also have example of Skinner’s work and how he actually used the process in his experiments.
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REFERENCE 3
Reference Citation
Skinner, B. F. (1950). Are theories of learning necessary? Psychological Review, 57(4), 193-
216. doi:10.1037/h0054367
Summarization Paragraph
B.F. Skinner begins this article by defining theories of learning. He has concluded that there are 3 types of learning theories: physiological psychology (the study of what takes place in the nervous system as an organism learns), direct observation, and explanatory events that are not directly observed. Skinner then begins to question if these theories are necessary for learning, although he does give credit to them for producing significant changes in the science community.
Skinner begins to break down the process of learning- what happens when an organism learns and why learning occurs. Skinner defines learning as “a change in probability of a response”
(Skinner, 1950). Skinner proceeds to show evidence in the form of graphs and statistical comparisons to demonstrate the process of learning. What Skinner concludes is that the fastest way to understanding learning may be the result of research not designed to test theories. He stated that the learning community doesn’t make enough use of empirical equations and that

Katie Sanders there are too many variables in the learning theories. He stated that “we don’t seem ready for theory” (Skinner, 1950).
Evaluation Analysis
I believe that this article is of very high quality because it was written by B.F. Skinner himself. It was interesting to read his viewpoint on education and the importance of theories of learning. I was surprised by his final conclusion on their impact and relevance to the topic.
Skinner used a variety of charts and graphs to display his data which was very useful and made the topic easier to understand.
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REFERENCE 4
Reference Citation
Cherry, K. (2013). Introduction to operant conditioning. Psychology, Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopcond.htm
Summarization Paragraph
The author of this website breaks down the concept of operant conditioning and offers a clear definition of the process and the components needed. Operant conditioning is defined as
“the method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior” (Cherry,
2013). B.F. Skinner, the creator of operant conditioning, believed that behavior is associated with consequences. He believed that behavior was determined only by the external, observable forces in the world and was not concerned with internal forces. Cherry gives several clear examples of operant conditioning- one being employees willing to finish their work in order to get a promotion. The components of operant conditioning are either reinforcement (positive or negative) or punishment (positive or negative). Behavior is directly correlated based on the component being used.
Evaluation Analysis
This article was very informative and presented the process of operant conditioning in a way that was clear to understand. Cherry gave examples that are seen in society today to describe reinforcement. She described the history of operant conditioning and related it back to B.F.
Skinner. Despite the straightforwardness of this article, I believe that it was lacking in content.
Other than the basic definitions of operant conditioning, it didn’t provide any more information or thoughts to consider.
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REFERENCE 5
Reference Citation
Skinner, B. F. (1958). Reinforcement today. American Psychologist, 13(3), 94-99. doi:10.1037/h0049039
Summarization Paragraph

Katie Sanders
B.F. Skinner wrote this article to discuss the recent changes on the view of reinforcement and the impact that they have had on society. He stated that reinforcement has attracted more attention recently because people are becoming aware that behavior can be predicted and controlled and this interests them. Skinner spends the time discussing the changes in the views of reinforcement and how these views are being forced on society and why they are difficult to accept.
Skinner begins by discussing the acquisition of behavior- “mechanical connection between behavior and reinforcement” (Skinner, 1958). He shares a story about a pigeon and how they created a conditional reinforcer to teach it how to bowl. The important aspect of the reinforcer was that it had to come directly after the behavior. He and his colleagues also tried to create an emotional response to tie to the behavior to strengthen it. Skinner thought that the study of the acquisition of behavior was extremely important. Skinner was disappointed that there were hardly any studies on this topic in society. Skinner also discussed the idea of the maintenance of behavior in this article and how intermittent reinforcement is necessary to ensure that the behavior is actual acquired.
Evaluation Analysis
I would view this article as high quality because B.F. Skinner wrote it himself. He was able to describe his views on reinforcement today without having someone put his ideas in their own words. It was informative the way that Skinner described the acquisition of learning. This was not an area that I had done much research before and found it interesting the importance that he placed on this step of the learning process. I can see how in the field of education, a large amount of emphasis should be placed on how a student learns, not just that they have information and can retain it. It was also interesting to see how Skinner viewed society’s response to reinforcement. I believe that he was appreciative of the acknowledgement that reinforcement was receiving but did not necessarily agree with the views of society.