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Skinner studied only the observable
Studying behavior
Skinner was a psychology professor at Harvard from 1958 to 1974. Unlike his contemporaries, he preferred to measure how much people ate rather than how hungry they were or how much pleasure they got from eating. He wanted to find out how environmental variables affect behavior.
Operant conditioning
His assumption was that behavior is shaped by its consequences. Actions with consequences we dislike become less likely, and actions with consequences we like become more likely. That is the basis of operant conditioning.
The Skinner box
One of his most important inventions was the operant conditioning chamber, known as a Skinner box. Rats in the box had to figure out a task, such as pushing a lever, that would reward them with food. The automated system let Skinner and thousands of successors study conditioned behavior in a controlled setting.
Why did Skinner ignore thoughts and feelings?
Skinner followed behaviorism, the school launched by John B. Watson in his 1913 article Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It, which held that psychology should study observable behavior. Skinner argued that inner states cannot be measured directly and are not needed to predict what an organism does. His version, radical behaviorism, treats thoughts and feelings as behavior that environmental history explains.
How did puzzle boxes lead to Skinner boxes?
Edward Thorndike put cats in puzzle boxes around 1898 and timed how long they took to escape. He concluded that responses followed by satisfying results get stamped in, a principle he called the law of effect. Skinner's chamber let an animal respond again and again without a researcher resetting each trial. A device called the cumulative recorder drew each response as a step on a moving paper chart.
Why did Skinner measure rate of responding?
Skinner used response rate, how often an animal pressed a lever per minute, as his main measure. Rate changed smoothly with each change in schedule, so he could see the effect on a single animal instead of averaging across many. The approach is known as the experimental analysis of behavior, and Skinner laid it out in his 1938 book The Behavior of Organisms.
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