B.F. Skinner

1. B.F. Skinner Heather Blake and Madelyn Harriger

2. About B.f. Skinner • Burrhus Frederic Skinner • Born March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania • Hamilton College and Harvard University • Married Yvonne Blue and had two daughters • University of Minnesota, Indiana University and Harvard University • Died August 18, 1990

3. Operant Conditioning • Define: changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement which is given after the desired response; looking at actions and consequences • Stemmed from Thorndike’s Law of Effect • Skinner Box

4. Skinner box

5. Examples • Working hard and getting a promotion increases the behavior of working hard because people want more chances of promotions • When someone has the window open and hears the traffic so they turn on the radio and don’t have to listen to the noise outside • Parents give you $20 for every A you receive as a final grade so you continue to work hard and get straight A’s

6. Reinforcers Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated Terminal behavior is the desired behavior at the end of a planned reinforcement

7. Types of reinforcers • Primary (Natural):Unconditioned; learned naturally without learning • Secondary: associated with primary; “direct desire” • Positive: Associated with rewards • Negative: Associated with avoidance and elimination

8. Positive Reinforcements • Strengthens behavior by providing a consequence an individuals finds rewarding • Ideally more preferred and effective • Examples: • Dress nice and a cute guy compliments More likely to dress nice • Get good grades and parents give you money  Keeps getting good grades • Little kid is behaves in public and gets candy  Will behave more often

9. Negative Reinforcements • When a particular behavior is strengthened by the removal of an adverse stimulus; avoiding and eliminating • A process not an action • More common than positive • Example: • You clean up your room so your parents will not nag you about it • It rains and you get wet, next time you bring an umbrella when it rains • (Religious) To avoid Hell we are taught to be live a Christ-driven life

10. Punishment • Weakens or eliminates a response • Removes a positive reinforcer or introduces a negative reinforcer • Example: • Get bad grades and phone is taken away • Misbehave and get spanked

11. Comparing

12. Video • Operant Conditioning

13. Education Application • Discuss with partner how you can use positive reinforcements in the classroom

14. Positive Education application • Lunch with the teacher • Treasure box • Bonus points • Pizza/Movie day

15. Education application • Discuss with your partner how you can use negativereinforcements in the classroom

16. Negative education application • The students take a quiz at the end of every week and they are told that if all assigned homework is turned in then there will be no quiz. The behavior to complete homework is strengthened to avoid the quiz • Pop quizzes if students are not paying attention or are talking during the lesson. If they pay attention and ask questions then there is no pop quiz

17. What did we learn? • B.F. Skinner • Operant Conditioning • Skinner Box • Positive vs Negative Reinforcement • Negative Reinforcement vs Punishment

18. Questions?

19. References Skinner, B. F. (2011). B.f. skinner foundation: A survey of operant behavior. Retrieved from http://www.bfskinner.org/bfskinner/SurveyOperantBehavior.html Conversation with B.F. Skinner. (1973). Organizational Dynamics, 1(3), 31-40. Elias, J. L. (1974). B F Skinner and religious education. Religious Education, 69(5), 558-567. McLeod, S. (2007). Simply psychology: Skinner-operant conditioning. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html Moore, J. J. (2011). BEHAVIORISM. Psychological Record, 61(3), 449-465.