B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Background

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American psychologist and behaviorist born on March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to William and Grace Skinner. He attended Hamilton College in New York where he received his B.A in English and Literature.  After graduating from Hamilton College in 1926, he started his Master’s in Psychology at Harvard University where he was also a researcher and educator. In 1931 Skinner received a Ph.D. from Harvard and remained there as a researcher until 1936.

Skinner’s work was influenced by the studies of Pavlov (Classical Conditioning), Watson (The Behaviorist Manifesto), and Thorndike (Law of Effect).

 

Skinner’s theory of Operant Conditioning

 

• Skinner’s theory is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior.

• Changes in behavior are the result of an individual’s response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment.

• A response produces a consequence such as solving a math problem, defining a word, or hitting a ball.

• When a particular stimulus-response pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond.

• Learning is the gradual building up of larger and more complex patterns of stimulus and response.

 

Operant Conditioning Chamber

 

• Animal is placed in the box

• Eventually hits the lever (operant response)

• Food/water deprived for 23 hours per day

• Animal is held at 80% of its free-feeding body weight

• Animal learns to associate the sound of the delivery mechanism with food

• Delivery of food pellet reinforces the response

Three components of Operant Conditioning

• Positive reinforcement: presence of pleasant stimulus increases behavior

• Negative reinforcement: absence of unpleasant stimulus increases behavior

• Punishment: presence of unpleasant stimulus decreases behavior

 

Influence on Adult Education

• Because learning under the behaviorist scenario is a form of behavior modification, the adult learner’s responsibility is to develop an environment which the correct behavior of the adult learner is reinforced.

• Behaviorist curricula does not include irrelevant stimuli that could be distracting, therefore the curricula are practiced in simple contexts removed from the context

• Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses can be reinforced.

• Testing is a matter of designing rewards for correct answers and objectifying results.

 

Criticisms

External rewards may diminish intrinsic motivation

Behaviorism could not account for complex learning like language acquisition

• Noam Chomsky criticized Skinner’s theory for giving a description of the stimuli and responses solely in terms of observable behaviors. There has to be more to learning than what is observable.

 

Impacts for Learning Transfer

Reinforcement and punishment are important components of Skinner’s theory that promotes the transfer of learning and consequently changes in behavior.

Simply reinforcing a behavior or rewarding the desired response can condition a response to a stimulus and enhance learning.

 

Facilitation Methods for Learning Transfer

Knowing that some adult learners have a tendency to go back to a previous learning experience while learning new knowledge or skills, reinforcement can be used as a tool to encourage learning transfer in adult education in formal and informal learning settings. In order to ensure that a previous learning experience helps to facilitate a new one, it is important to start simple and gradually increase the learning task that we want to reinforce (scaffolding).

 

 

References

Merriam, S.B., Caffarella, R.S., and Baumgarther, L.M. (2007). Learning in adulthood.         San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 11(4), 275-281

 

B.F. Skinner Foundation (http://www.bfskinner.org/publications/)

 

Skinner, B.F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior. Retrieved January 22, 2015 from http://www.bfskinner.org/newtestsite/wpcontent/uploads/2014/02/ScienceHumanBehavior.pdf

 

Skinner, B.F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

 

Pavlov, I.P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes. Retrieved February 4, 20015 from

 http://s-f-walker.org.uk/pubsebooks/pdfs/Conditioned-Reflexes-Pavlov.pdf

 

Thorndike, E.L. (1911). Animal Intelligence. Retrieved February 16, 2015 from              http://books.google.com/books?id=LC7GeCzw0lQC

 

Wikipedia, B.F. Skinner.  Retrieved February 3, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner

 

Youtube, Classical Vs. Operant Conditioning. Retrieved February 3, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6LEcM0E0io

 

McLeod, S. A. (2007). Behaviorist Approach. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html