Burrhus Frederic Skinner The developer of radical behaviorism By: Matt Miller & Alexander Skinner

Radical Behaviorism is a philosophy developed by Skinner that underlies the experimental analysis of behavior. 1. Everything that organisms do is behavior (including thinking) 2. All behavior is lawful, which allows itself to be experimentally studied.

"The consequences of behavior determine the probability that the behavior will occur again" B. F. Skinner B.F Skinner was famous for his research on operant (behavior that operates on the environment to produce rewarding and reinforcing effects) conditioning (process of changing behavior by rewarding or punishing a subjects action until associated with pleasure or distress)

Reinforcers Positive reinforcers are events that reflect positive behavior and are strengthened by the addition of something such as a praise or reward. Negative reinforcers are events that are considered unpleasant and are strengthened by the removal of a praise or reward.

A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future. An aversive stimulus is the opposite of a reinforcing stimulus, something we might find unpleasant or painful. A behavior followed by an aversive stimulus results in a decreased probability of the behavior occurring in the future. Stimuli

Inventions Skinner invented the cumulative recorder a mechanical device that recorded every response as an upward movement of a horizontally moving line, the slope showed rate of responding. In 1944 when WWII skinner sought funding for a project that involved pigeons guiding bombs, he trained pigeons to keep pecking at a target that would hold a missile onto target

Inventions Cont’d Skinner sat in on his daughters fourth grade math class one day and had a great idea, he realized that some kids in the class were having no trouble going through everything and some kids were struggling and that they wouldn’t get help till the next day when the work was taken up. He invented a machine that would randomly present problems for students to do and then give them feedback on their answers

Skinner Box Also called the operant chamber, this is a clear box with a response lever, electrified grid, lights, loudspeaker, and a food dispenser Automatically detected the occurrence of behavioral response or action Often used for studying mice, when the mouse pushed on the response lever a food pellet was dropped out of the dispenser, as the mouse learned of this it did it more and more until the food was done and then it stopped