Transcript BF Skinner - ejgolden87

B. F. Skinner
ED 530 Theorist Presentation
Summer Semester 2010
Dr. Richard Clark
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Born March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, PA
B.A. from Hamilton College
M.S. from Harvard University
Ph.D. from Harvard University
Died August 18, 1990 of leukemia
Background
An organism is operating in its
environment
 This organism encounters a reinforcing
stimulus
 special stimulus has the effect of
increasing the operant (behavior
occurring just before the reinforcer)
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Operant Conditioning
The skinner box was designed so that
when a rat accidentally pressed a bar, a
small food pellet would be released
 Soon, the rat would be conditioned to
know every time it pressed the bar it
would receive a pellet
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Skinner Box
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For the Skinner Box to work,
reinforcement had to be present. He
dabbled in a few schedules:
◦ Continuous reinforcement (pellet every time)
◦ Fixed ratio schedule (one pellet every 3 times)
◦ Fixed interval schedule (press the bar once
during a certain amount of time—20 seconds)
◦ Variable schedules-change the “x” each time—3
pushes then 10
Reinforcement
During WWII, Skinner aided in a top
secret project to train pigeons to guide
bombs.
 He trained pigeons to keep pecking a
target that would hold a missile onto a
target.
 The pigeons pecked reliably, even when
falling rapidly and working with warlike
noise all around them.
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Project Pigeon
Project Pigeon was discontinued
 Skinner liked working with pigeons best
because pigeons behave more rapidly
than rats, allowing more rapid discoveries
of the effect of new contingencies
 Skinner never worked with rats again
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Project Pigeon
Skinner is also credited for shaping
behavior
 For the desired behavior, make variations
to take you closer to that behavior (plus
reinforcements)
 Skinner once used shaping to teach
pigeons to bowl
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Shaping
Skinner designed a heated crib that was
enclosed with a Plexiglas window
 Many people believed this crib to be a
Skinner Box for humans
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The Baby Tender
A book about a community called Walden
II
 This community was very well planned out
including how children would be cared for
 The book received much praise as well as
condemnation
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Walden II
"Teachers must learn how to teach ... they
need only to be taught more effective
ways of teaching.“
 positive reinforcement is more effective at
changing and establishing behavior than
punishment
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Skinner in the Classroom
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Skinner says that there are five main
obstacles to learning:
◦ People have a fear of failure.
◦ The task is not broken down into small enough
steps.
◦ There is a lack of directions.
◦ There is also a lack of clarity in the directions.
◦ Positive reinforcement is lacking.
Skinner in the Classroom
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Skinner suggests that any ageappropriate skill can be taught using five
principles to remedy the above problems:
◦ Give the learner immediate feedback.
◦ Break down the task into small steps.
◦ Repeat the directions as many times as
possible.
◦ Work from the most simple to the most
complex tasks.
◦ Give positive reinforcement.
Skinner in the Classroom
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B. F. Skinner Foundation – Better Behavioral
Science For a More Humane World. Retrieved
May 28, 2010
http://www.bfskinner.org/BFSkinner/Home.html.
Personality Theories. Retrieved May 30, 2010
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinner.html.
B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) - Behavioral Analysis,
Social Service, Educational Reform. Retrieved
May 30, 2010
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2421
/Skinner-B-F-1904-1990.html.
References