B.F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner described his Pennsylvania childhood as "warm and stable." As a boy, he enjoyed building and inventing things; a skill he would later use in his own psychological experiments. He received a B.A. in English literature in 1926 from Hamilton College, and spent some time as a struggling writer before discovering the writings of Watson and Pavlov. Inspired by these works, Skinner decided to abandon his career as a novelist and entered the psychology graduate program at Harvard University.
Skinner married Yvonne Blue in 1936, and the couple went on to have two daughters, Julie and Deborah.
Career:
In 1945, Skinner moved to Bloomington, Indiana and became Psychology Department Chair and the University of Indiana. In 1948, he joined the psychology department at Harvard University where he remained for the rest of his life. He became one of the leaders of behaviorism and his work contributed immensely to experimental psychology. He also invented the 'Skinner box,' in which a rat learns to obtain food by pressing a lever.
Awards:
1966 Edward Lee Thorndike Award, American Psychological Association
1968 - National Medal of Science from President Lyndon B. Johnson
1971 - Gold Medal of the American Psychological Foundation
1972 - Human of the Year Award
1990 - Citation for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology
Research:
Operant Conditioning
B.F. Skinner is famous for his research on operant conditioning and negative reinforcement. He developed a device called the "cumulative recorder," which showed rates of responding as a sloped line. Using this device, he found that behavior did not depend on the preceding stimulus as Watson and Pavlov maintained. Instead, Skinner found that behaviors were dependent upon what happens after the response. Skinner called this operant behavior.
Schedules of Reinforcement
In his research on operant conditioning, Skinner also discovered and described schedules of reinforcement:
B.F. Skinner described his Pennsylvania childhood as "warm and stable." As a boy, he enjoyed building and inventing things; a skill he would later use in his own psychological experiments. He received a B.A. in English literature in 1926 from Hamilton College, and spent some time as a struggling writer before discovering the writings of Watson and Pavlov. Inspired by these works, Skinner decided to abandon his career as a novelist and entered the psychology graduate program at Harvard University.
Skinner married Yvonne Blue in 1936, and the couple went on to have two daughters, Julie and Deborah.
Career:
In 1945, Skinner moved to Bloomington, Indiana and became Psychology Department Chair and the University of Indiana. In 1948, he joined the psychology department at Harvard University where he remained for the rest of his life. He became one of the leaders of behaviorism and his work contributed immensely to experimental psychology. He also invented the 'Skinner box,' in which a rat learns to obtain food by pressing a lever.
Awards:
1966 Edward Lee Thorndike Award, American Psychological Association
1968 - National Medal of Science from President Lyndon B. Johnson
1971 - Gold Medal of the American Psychological Foundation
1972 - Human of the Year Award
1990 - Citation for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology
Research:
Operant Conditioning
B.F. Skinner is famous for his research on operant conditioning and negative reinforcement. He developed a device called the "cumulative recorder," which showed rates of responding as a sloped line. Using this device, he found that behavior did not depend on the preceding stimulus as Watson and Pavlov maintained. Instead, Skinner found that behaviors were dependent upon what happens after the response. Skinner called this operant behavior.
Schedules of Reinforcement
In his research on operant conditioning, Skinner also discovered and described schedules of reinforcement: