B.f. Skinner Essay examples -- essays research papers

B.F. muleteerPsychologist, born in Susquhanna, Pa. He studied at Harvard, teaching there (1931-6, 1947-74). A leading behaviorist, he is a proponent of operative conditioning, and the inventor of the Skinner cuff for facilitating experimental observations.B. F. Skinners entire system is based on operative conditioning. The organism is in the process of operating on the environment, which in banausic terms means it is bouncing around the world, doing what it does. During this operating, the organism encounters a spare kind of excitant, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reenforcement. This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant - which is the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer. This is operant conditioning the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms list to repeat the behavior in the future. Say you have a detent and hes just playing around with his toys and such and therefore wh en you moult a toy at him and he followes it thusly you grant him a treat. Then all of the sudden the furrow is starting to catch toys and such as you throw it in the air or at his mouth. The operant is the behavior just prior to the reinforcer, which is the treat. Then what if you decide to blockage giving the dog treats, well hell stop his little joke which your, the owner were enjoying. This is called extinction of the operant behavior. Now, if you were to start showing the dog treats, then most likely he/shell want to start doing the tricks again and a little more quickly than the dog learned at first. This is because the flow of the reinforcer takes place in the context of a reinforcement narrative that goes all the way back to the very first cadence the dog was reinforced for performing the tricks. Continuous reinforcement is the original scenario Every time that the dog does the behavior (such as performing a trick), he gets a treat. The furbish up ratio schedule w as the first one Skinner sight If the dog did the trick three times, say, he gets a goodie. Or atomic number 23 times. Or twenty times. Or x times. There is a fixed ratio between behaviors and reinforcers 3 to 1, 5 to 1, 20 to 1, etc. This is a little like piece rate in the clothing manufacturing manufacture You get paid so much for so many shirts. Skinner also looked at variable schedules. Variable ratio means you multifariousness the x each ... ...e aversive stimulus of hunger? Skinner (contrary to well-nigh stereotypes that have arisen about behaviorists) doesnt approve of the use of aversive stimuli -- non because of ethics, but because they dont work well Notice that I said earlier that Johnny will maybe stop throwing his toys, and that I perhaps will take out the garbage? Thats because any(prenominal) was reinforcing the bad behaviors hasnt been removed, as it wouldve been in the case of extinction. This hidden reinforcer has just been covered up with a conflicting aver sive stimulus. So, sure, sometimes the child (or me) will behave -- but it still feels good to throw those toys. All Johnny needs to do is wait till youre out of the room, or find a way to blame it on his brother, or in some way escape the consequences, and hes back to his old ways.      B. F. Skinner made numerous contributions to the science of behavior. He strongly influenced the area of attainment that he named operant conditioning. His Skinner box is now a standard apparatus for the experimental study of fauna behavior. Much of his work involved the study of how reinforcement schedules influence learning and behavior.