B.F Skinner

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B.F Skinner

• 1904 - 1990

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Biography

• Born in Susquehanna, PA
• Parents and grandmother strict
• I was taught to fear God, the police, and what
  people think
• Grandmother taught the punishments of Hell by
  pointing out the hot coals in the parlor stove
• Father took him to the local jail and to a
  lecture about life in a New York State Prison

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Biography

• These and other experiences determined his adult
  behaviors through the rewards and punishment he
  received as a child
• Spent hours building things leading to several
  later inventions
• A flotation machine to separate ripe and green
  elderberries
• A device to help remind him to hang up his PJs
• An air crib to provide and environmentally
  controlled environment

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Biography

• Attempted to become a writer
• Submitted three short stories to Robert Frost
• Attempted to write a novel
• I had nothing important to say
• Felt he was not at fault but the limitations of
  the literary method for understanding human
  behavior was at fault

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Biography

• Entered Harvard in 1928 to study psychology.
• Did return to writing once to deal with
  depression.
• Wrote Walden Two
• Discusses a society which is controlled by
  positive reinforcement (token economy)
• Has sold more than 2 million copies

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Behavior

• Respondent Behavior
• A response made to or elicited by a specific
  external event or stimulus
• Environment impacts behavior
• Operant Behavior
• Behavior that is emitted spontaneously and
  voluntarily rather than elicited by a stimulus
• Has impact on the environment because it produces
  consequences

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Operant Conditioning

• The selection of behavior through its
  consequences
• Learning is measured by changes (increases and
  decreases) in the rate of responding

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Operant Conditioning

• Reinforcement
• Positive
• Negative
• Punishment
• Positive
• Negative

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Operant Conditioning

• Schedules of Reinforcement
• Shaping
• Extinction

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Personality

• Non-existent invisible structure
• A repository of learned responses within a
  specific individual
• All personality characterizations are the result
  of a failure to observe explanatory external
  variables that elicit the behavior