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

B.F. SkinnerPsychologist, born in Susquhanna, Pa. He studied at Harvard, t to each oneing there (1931-6, 1947-74). A leading demeanorist, he is a counsel of operant conditioning, and the inventor of the Skinner box for facilitating experimental observations.B. F. Skinners entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the process of operating on the environment, which in ordinary terms actor it is bouncing around the world, doing what it does. During this operating, the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the effect of change magnitude the operant - which is the deportment occurring just before the reinforcer. This is operant conditioning the carriage is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the air in the future. Say you have a chase and hes just playing around with his toys and such and then when y ou throw a toy at him and he catches it then you give him a treat. consequently all of the sudden the dog 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 stop giving the dog treats, well hell stop his little subterfuge which your, the owner were enjoying. This is called extermination of the operant behavior. Now, if you were to start showing the dog treats, then most in all probability he/shell want to start doing the tricks again and a little much quickly than the dog learned at first. This is because the return of the reinforcer takes impersonate in the context of a reinforcement history that goes all the modality back to the very first time the dog was reinforced for playacting 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 fixed ra tio schedule was the first one Skinner discover If the dog did the trick three times, say, he gets a goodie. Or five times. Or xx 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 standardised piece rate in the clothing manufacturing industry You get compensable so much for so many shirts. Skinner also looked at variable schedules. Variable ratio means you change the x each ... ...e aversive stimulus of hunger? Skinner (contrary to some stereotypes that have arisen just about behaviorists) doesnt approve of the use of aversive stimuli -- not because of ethics, but because they acceptt pretend well Notice that I said earliest that greyback leading maybe stop throwing his toys, and that I perhaps will take out the garbage? Thats because whatever 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 conf licting aversive 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 antiquated ways. B. F. Skinner made numerous contributions to the science of behavior. He strongly influenced the world of learning that he named operant conditioning. His Skinner box is now a standard apparatus for the experimental study of animal behavior. Much of his work involved the study of how reinforcement schedules influence learning and behavior.