Section 3.

5 BF Skinner (1849 1936)

Although it was Watson who popularized behaviorism, it was B.F. Skinner
who laid the foundation for modern behaviorism and behavior modification as we
know it.
Skinner was an inventor, a writer, and a researcher who came to believe in a
concept he called social engineering. While Watson stated he could take basically
any child and through behavioral techniques raise him or her to be a banker or
thief, Skinner believed that by creating the right environment we can predict and
control behavior to the benefit of society. He believed strongly in the science that
he developed, and thought we could use behaviorism to engineer a better society.
We will discuss social engineering a bit later when we examine one of his most
famous pieces of writing Walden Two.



Skinner agreed with Watson that psychology should be interested only in
behaviors (remember Watsons manifesto). However, Skinner took it much
further. He distinguished between Type S (Classical Conditioning) and Type R
(Operant Conditioning). Recall with classical conditioning the stimulus cames
before the response (SR) and the response was more reflexive in nature. With
operant conditioning the stimulus follows the response (RS) and the response
was more voluntary.

Skinner the Inventor. Just as Thorndike invented his puzzle box, Skinner
also invented most all of the equipment used in his operant conditioning including
the operant chamber (e.g., the cage where the rats pressed levers and the pigeons
pecked the disks) and the cumulative recorder (the recording device that graphed
the lever pressing).
An operant chamber (also referred to as a Skinner Box) is a secured chamber
where a laboratory animal such as a rat or pigeon is placed to study reinforcement
and punishment in non-human animals. The main features of the operant chamber
can be seen below. These are the speaker, light, water spout, food hopper, and bar
(for lever pressing). In the case for pigeons the chamber has a series of disks the
bird can peck. Think about it for each species you need a behavior they are
capable of emitting. Rats have hands so they can grasp and press levers. Pigeons
have a rather limited behavioral repertoire and can only peck for the most part.
The speaker and the light provide a stimulus for the animal to discriminate
when it might get reinforced or punished depending on the procedure. The tone is
a good stimulus because it is on a continuum allowing the researcher to present a
stimulus value on the stimulus continuum of a low tone to a high tone, however
the light is discrete (i.e., either on or off).
The water spout and the food hopper allow for the delivery of the reinforcer.
The food hopper is attached to a computerized mechanism which is attached to a
canister of food pellets. When the desired number of presses has occurred, the
computer opens a small gate and a pellet falls into the food hopper for the rat to
enjoy. It is sort of like how a gum ball drops from a gumball machine.
The lever is also referred to as the manipulanda since it is the object that the
animal manipulates.
One object that is not labeled is the bars on the floor. The bars serve two
purposes. They allow the feces and urine to be removed from the operant chamber
and they also function as a punisher. Electrical current can be administered
through the metal bars in the floor to shock the rat.


Above is a screen print from the program Sniffy the Virtual Rat.

In a simple experiment using the operant chamber, we can train the rat to
press the lever to receive a small food pellet (it is small so they do not become
satiated). Suppose we want to put the rat on a FR25. Recall that FR is a schedule
of reinforcement where the animal is reinforced after they have pressed the lever
25 times (fixed ratio).



To get the rat on an FR25 we cant just tell the rat, Hey press the level 25
times and well give you a Scooby Snack. We have to teach it to press the lever.
We do this with a technique called shaping. Shaping is used to actually shape the
desired behavior which in this case is pressing the bar 25 times.
In the beginning the rat doesnt even know to press the lever. With shaping we
use another technique called successive approximation. Successive approximation
means when the rat does something close to the behavior it gets reinforced. If the
rat looks at the lever we might have the computer to dispense a food pellet for the
rat. Since the food dispenser makes a mechanical sound, eventually the rat begins
to associate food with the mechanical noise the computer makes when opening
the gate allowing the pellet to fall into the hopper. This is similar to the
conditioning that happens to your pet when you use the electric can opener to
open their food.
As the shaping progresses, the rat is only reinforced when it approaches the
lever, it is no longer reinforced for simply looking at the lever. After a few trials,
the rat is only reinforced for touching the lever. Finally the animal is only
reinforced for touching the lever. At this point every time the rat presses the lever,
it gets a food pellet. This, as you may recall from the section on schedules of
reinforcement is referred to as continuous reinforcement. One press, one pellet.
Dont forget though, we want the rat to be on a FR25. We need to lean out the
reinforcement schedule so the rat is only reinforced intermittently (one and
awhile).
Suppose we gradually change the rules several times and make the schedule
FR3, then FR5, FR10, FR15, then finally FR25. Here is what will happen. The rat
is doing very well with the continuous reinforcement. As soon as the schedule is
changed to FR3, on the second press no food arrives. Remember this is called
extinction (no reinforcement following a behavior that was previously reinforced).
What do you think the rat will do now?



On the second try when the rat is not reinforced, extinction will occur and it
will press the bar again. This try will also lead to extinction. So the rat presses
again as it experiences an extinction burst. Two presses have gone by without
food it is probably getting a bit upset. The rat presses again and it receives a
food pellet. Now the rat learns that it takes three presses to earn a Scooby Snack!



After responding has stabilized, we can keep leaning out the schedule to
VR10, VR15, etc. Rats will press hundreds of times for a pellet if the increments
are not too much at each schedule increase. However, if the schedule is increased
too fast and by too much, the rat will experience what is known as ratio strain.
Discrimination Training. Recall the light in the operant chamber is used for
discrimination training. We discussed discrimination training with Pavlovs
experimental neurosis. Once we have the rat on a schedule of reinforcement we
can go back to using continuous reinforcement. The light can work in one of two
ways depending on how we train the rat. It can signal reinforcement (S+) or it
could signal extinction (S-). Reinforcing under one condition (S+) and not the
other (S-) is also referred to as differential reinforcement. Note we go to a
continuous reinforcement so that it is clear to the rat that we reinforce for the (S+)
and we do not reinforcement for the (S-).
Since our hypothetical rat has been working with the light off, lets use the
light as a (S-) to signal extinction trials. Again the rat is enjoying continuous
reinforcement and the light turns on and food is no longer delivered. So the rat
goes into extinction and starts pressing a few more times. Now before the pressing
is entirely extinguished, we turn off the light and return to reinforcing every lever
press.
In the beginning the rat will continue to press the lever when the light is on.
However, after awhile the rat will come under stimulus control of the light and
wait until it turns off until it presses the lever again.
Conditioned Emotional Response. Not all conditioning that occurs in an
operant chamber is operant (SR) conditioning. Some classical conditioning also
occurs. When the rat learns to associate the sound of the computer opening the
food gate, this is classical conditioning. We can use the operant chamber to learn
about conditioned emotional response (CER - recall this from an earlier section).
How would we use the operant chamber to conduct CER training?
To condition an emotional response we would use the electric shock from the
bars on the floor. One thing we know about rats is when they are scared they
freeze up. So we can evaluate how scared they are by how much or how often
they freeze up. Freezing up is referred to as a species specific response. In other
words freezing up is a unique response to fear that rats employ. Other examples of
species specific responding are pigs rooting for food, raccoons washing their
food, and some snails retracting into their shells when threatened.



For our CER training, imagine the rat is shaped up to press the lever on a
VR5, for instance (it could be most any schedule of reinforcement for that
matter). At some point a light then turns on and a few seconds later a brief shock
is administered through the floor. The rat freezes from the shock and stops
pressing the lever. After a moment, the rat returns to lever pressing. In a little
while the light is displayed, followed by the shock, the rat freezes for awhile from
the shock before returning to the lever pressing. This is repeated until the light
becomes condition and it alone elicits the freezing response. CER is then
measured by the decrease in lever presses. The fewer the presses, the more fearful
the rat was.





Skinners Air Bed. Among the things Skinner , he invented what he called
an air bed to use instead of a crib. Here is an excerpt from his article Baby in a
Box,
1

We tackled first the problem of warmth. The usual solution is to wrap the
baby in half-a-dozen layers of cloth-shirt, nightdress, sheet, and blankets. This is
never completely successful. The baby is likely to be found steaming in its own
fluids or lying cold and uncovered.
Schemes to prevent uncovering may be dangerous, and in fact they have
sometimes even proved fatal. Clothing and bedding also interfere with normal
exercise and growth and keep the baby from taking comfortable postures or
changing posture during sleep. They also encourage rashes and sores. Nothing can
be said for the system on the score of convenience, because frequent changes and
launderings are necessary.
After a little experimentation we found that our baby, when first home from
the hospital, was completely comfortable and relaxed without benefit of clothing
at about 86F. As she grew older, it was possible to lower the temperature by easy

1
http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/cl/skinner_baby_in_a_box.pdf
stages. Now, at eleven months, we are operating at about 78, with a relative
humidity of 50 per cent. Raising or lowering the temperature by more than a
degree or two produces a surprising change in the babys condition and behavior.
This response is so sensitive that we wonder how a comfortable temperature
is ever reached with clothing and blankets. The discovery, which pleased us most,
was that crying and fussing could always be stopped by slightly lowering the
temperature.



One of the daughters who Skinner raised in the air bed is now a math teacher
(Julie Vargas). When asked what it was like to be raised that way she felt it was
perfectly fine and thought it was good.
Among other inventions were Skinners guided missile system, steered by
three pigeons,
2
and a teaching machine
3
which was essentially a box used to teach
children the answers to questions. We will discuss the teaching machine in a later
section when we look at behaviorism in the classroom.

Skinner the Writer. Skinner was a prolific writer and believed that all human
behavior was determined by the environment. Skinners deterministic ideas are
disturbing to many of us who believe in the concept of free will to act and behave
as we like.
Skinner wrote a book called Walden Two describing a utopian community
based on behavioral principles. In the commune, residents used behavioral
principles to guide and direct their behaviors. Skinner referred to this social
planning as social engineering. Students who read Walden Two are often upset

2
http://humansciences.org/104/files/2008/09/pigeongm1.jpg
3
http://www.greenchameleon.com/gc/blog_detail/weve_been_imagined/
about how the children were raised separately from their parents, how jobs were
allocated, and how the members behaviors were directed at the benefit of the
community first, not to the individuals.
Skinner extended his social engineering concept to society as a whole in his
book Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Skinners position was that the technology of
behavior modification could be used to solve important social issues such as war
and over population.



What troubled people was that Skinner believed that freedom and dignity
were just traits that stood in the way of advancing society. He argued that instead
of promoting freedom and dignity, attention should be directed towards
environments, social and physical, in which people live. The environment should
be changed rather than humankind if societal goals are to be met.
Beyond Freedom and Dignity may sound radical, but most of us are in
agreement when we say kids from poor areas need good schools to help them
learn and to be productive. We cant simply hire good teachers to work in
rundown buildings. Many teachers would not want to work under those
conditions. New schools should be built under these circumstances. Building new
schools is a way of changing the environment. And we can probably agree that
the way schools are designed, different behaviors can be encouraged (learning,
safety, cooperative play, etc.).
Also consider how our government manipulates our behaviors with taxes and
tax credits. Cigarettes are unhealthy and they are taxed fairly high so people wont
smoke as much (this is also referred to as a sin tax). Taxes can function as
punishers that decrease the frequency of buying cigarettes.
Tax credits can function as reinforcers. If the government wants people to buy
energy efficient cars, they can provide tax credits for electric cars. Tax credits are
given to people for installing energy efficient windows and heat units in their
homes. We all have the free will to buy or not to buy energy efficient cars and
windows, but with the proper reinforcers many people will. Are people are OK
with that so long as they believe they have free will?







In Summary:
Skinner was an inventor and a
writer who believed in social
engineering.
Skinner differentiated
between Type S conditioning
and Type R conditioning.
Type S is classical
conditioning where the
stimulus generally comes
before the response.
Type R is operant
conditioning where the
response preceded the
stimulus.
Skinner invented the operant
chamber and the graphical
recording device called a
cumulative recorder.
The operant chamber will
have something that can
function as a discriminative
stimulus, something to
dispense reinforcers,
something to manipulate
(lever), and something to
deliver punishers.
Shaping is used to train rats to
lever press which involves
successive approximation
where the rat is reinforced
each time it does something
close to the desired response.
Initially the rat is reinforced
each time it press the lever.
This continuous
reinforcement is eventually
replaced with intermittent
reinforcement and gradually
leaned out to the desired
schedule.
Discrimination training
involves differential
reinforcement. Some
responses are reinforced
while others are not. A
discriminant stimulus such as
a light can signal when
reinforcement will follow (S+)
or when it will not follow (S-).
Stimulus control occurs in
situations when the rat learns
to emit the proper behavior
under the proper
circumstances.
Operant chambers can also be
used for classical conditioning
procedures such as
conditioned emotional
responses.
Species specific responses are
those particular to a given
animal. Many mating rituals
are species specific.
Skinner invented the air bed
which provides a controlled
environment for the baby.
Skinner was a prolific writer.
He wrote about how people
can use social engineering to
create better societies.