Psychology

In contrast to Watson's strict interpretation of behavior as a result of stimulus-response conditioning, Edward Tolman realized that learning involved more mental processes. Tolman was a firm believer in the science of behaviorism, but he also found himself fascinated...

Classical conditioning was based upon Pavlov’s finding that repeated pairing of a stimulus and a reward (a conditioned stimulus) can cause a response (an unconditioned response). Although subsequent behaviorist psychologists such as B.F. Skinner refined and extended...

Behaviorists (or experimental psychologists) were those who believed that learning occurred through the modification of behaviors, rather than through changes in mental states. They also believed that any psychological change should be observable and measurable. B.F....

Perhaps, the most influential idea stemming from Skinner's radical behaviorism was his theory of operant conditioned behavior. He argued that behavior is influenced by the consequences of actions, not by the stimuli that precede them. For example, if a person is given...

Operant conditioning explains why we learn behavior through our interaction with our environments. The major factor in teaching behavior, according to B.F. Skinner is the reinforcement provided by the consequences of an action. Positive results, such as receiving...

Skinner arrived at his theories of operant conditioning from observations made on animals in various devices he invented himself. These devices, which came to be known as "Skinner Boxes," were similar to Thorndike’s' "puzzle boxes" but were often far more...

The saying that ‘psychology is the science of pulling habits out of rats’ is based on the extensive animal experimentation carried out by behaviorists. Except for Watson’s Little Albert experiment, behaviorist theories resulted from and have been tested by experiments...

Although Skinner initially focused on learning, he later expanded the concept into a broader theory of behavior known as the three-component system. In this view, behavior results from a series of interactions between internal states (the "stimulus"), responses (the...

In one respect, Skinner’s observations caused a complete change in direction in education. Previously the emphasis had been on controlling behavior through discipline, and both punishment and reward for correct and incorrect responses. Skinner saw in experiments that...

Skinner’s radical behaviorism lead him to believe that we do not have any freedom of choice, that our behavior is controlled by the process of reinforcement, and that our ability to act is determined by genetic factors. In the 1930s Konrad Lorenz noted that newborn...