Outline

B.F. Skinner

Biography
Theoretical notions
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RespondentandOperantBehaviour
OperantConditioningPrinciples
TheSkinnerBox
ShapingandExtinction
Superstitiousbehavior
Discriminativeresponding
Secondaryreinforcers

Stimulus, response! Stimulus, response! Dont

you ever think?

B. F. Skinner

Biography

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

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

Biography
Inventions
> The air-crib

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

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

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> 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

Biography

Inventions

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> Cumulative recorder

Keeps track of the animals 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

Major Theoretical Notions

Respondent and operant behaviour

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> 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

Major Theoretical Notions

Type S and Type R conditioning
> Two kinds of conditioning

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

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

Major Theoretical Notions

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

Type S and Type R conditioning

> Comparison with Thorndikes approach
Thorndikes 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 rate
of responding
EdwardLeeThorndike(18741949)

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

Operant conditioning principles

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> 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 responses re-occurring

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

Operant conditioning principles

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> 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
patterns
Controlling reinforcement -> controls behaviour
E.g, child rearing

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

Conditioning the lever-pressing response

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> Three steps

1. Deprivation

Food/water deprived for 23 hours per day

Animal is held at 80% of its free-feeding body
weight

2. Magazine training
Food pellets are delivered by the experimenter
Animal learns to associate the sound of the
delivery mechanism with food

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

Conditioning the lever-pressing response

> Three steps
3. Lever pressing

Animal is placed in the box

Eventually hits the lever (operant response)
Delivery of food pellet reinforces the response.

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

Conditioning the lever-pressing response

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> Shaping

A faster method of teaching the rat to lever press

Two components
1. Differential reinforcement
-> Some responses are reinforced, others are not
2. Successive approximations
-> Only reinforce responses that become
progressively closer to the desired response

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

Extinction and spontaneous recovery

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> Extinction - removing the reinforcer removes the

operant response

> Spontaneous recovery - The reoccurrence of a

Rest

Cumulativeresponses

response that had been extinguished, with no additional

training.

Extinction
Time

Spontaneous
recovery

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

Superstitious behavior

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> What if we delivered pellets noncontingently?

Random behaviour would get reinforced
E.g., Dog running in circles while waiting to get fed
Humans are susceptible to similar conditioning
E.g., Athletes/ coaches game rituals

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

Discriminative operant

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> Skinner box is set so that reinforcement is only

available when the light is on.
The light is the discriminative stimulus
I.e., indicates that reinforcement is available
SD = light on, S = light off, SR = reinforcing stimulus
A discriminative operant is symbolized as:
SD -> R -> SR
Skinner was interested in the SD -> R association
-> Cf. respondent conditioning
Stimulus control of behaviour

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

Secondary reinforcement

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> A neutral stimulus paired with a reinforcer can

take on reinforcing qualities of its own
> To test this notion
Lever press -> light -> food
Extinguish the response
Neither light nor food is delivered
Allow lever - press to deliver light (not food)
Response rate increases

B. F. Skinner

Major Theoretical Notions

Secondary reinforcement

B.F.Skinner(19041990)

> A secondary reinforcer can be used to reinforce

other responses
Clicker training for dogs
Warning: secondary reinforcers can be
extinguished!
Money for humans
Generalized reinforcer