B'F' Skinner

1
B.F. Skinner

• The most prominent figure in operant conditioning
  was B.F. Skinner.
• Instead of doing experiments in the real world,
  he wanted to do them in a closed, controlled
  environment.
• This prevented outside any factors from
  interfering with the study.

2
The Skinner Box

• The Skinner Box is a chamber in which Skinner
  placed animals such as rats and pigeons to study.
• The chamber contains either a lever or key that
  can be pressed in order to receive stimuli such
  as food and water.
• In classical conditioning, the stimuli comes
  before, in operant conditioning (OC) the stimuli
  comes after.

3
The Skinner Box
4
The Skinner Box

• positive reinforcer ? food pellets
• Providing the food pellets after the rat pushes a
  lever increases the behavior of pushing the
  lever.
• primary reinforcer ? food pellets
• The pigeons or rats dont have to be trained to
  want food.

5
The Skinner Box

• punishment ? electric shock
• Punishment would be if the rat was shocked after
  pushing the wrong lever.
• Something bad is applied.
• negative reinforcement ? electric shock
• Negative reinforcement would be if you
  continuously shocked the rat until it pressed the
  right lever.
• Something bad is taken away.

6
The Law of Effect

• The law of effect is the idea that behaviors are
  selected by their consequences.
• If you use positive reinforcement, you can
  suggest alternative behaviors.
• Students who are exhibiting proper behaviors are
  given attention.
• Students who used to have bad behavior to get
  attention will begin to seek attention with
  positive behaviors.

7
Classical Conditioning

• Create six classical conditioning scenarios that
  are 2-3 sentences and identify UCS, UCR, NS, CS,
  and CR.