Sunday, December 25, 2011

B F Sinner, Oops, Skinner and I

Navigation

B. F. Skinner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
BornMarch 20, 1904
Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, United States
DiedAugust 18, 1990 (aged 86)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
NationalityAmerican
FieldsPsychology, Linguistics, Philosophy
InstitutionsUniversity of Minnesota
Indiana University
Harvard University
Alma materHamilton College
Harvard University
Known forBehavior analysis
Operant conditioning
Radical behaviorism
Verbal Behavior
Operant conditioning chamber
InfluencesCharles Darwin
Ivan Pavlov
Ernst Mach
Jacques Loeb
Edward Thorndike
William James
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Notable awardsNational Medal of Science (1968)
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, social philosopher[1][2][3] and poet.[4] He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.[5]
Skinner invented the operant conditioning chamber, innovated his own philosophy of science called radical behaviorism,[6] and founded his own school of experimental research psychology—the experimental analysis of behavior. His analysis of human behavior culminated in his work Verbal Behavior, which has recently seen enormous increase[citation needed] in interest experimentally and in applied settings.[7]
Skinner discovered and advanced the rate of response as a dependent variable in psychological research. He invented the cumulative recorder to measure rate of responding as part of his highly influential work on schedules of reinforcement.[8][9] In a June, 2002 survey, Skinner was listed as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.[10] He was a prolific author who published 21 books and 180 articles.[11][12]

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Biography

The Skinners' grave at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to Grace and William Skinner. His father was a lawyer. He became an atheist after a liberal Christian teacher tried to assuage his fear of the Hell that his grandmother described.[13] His brother Edward, two and a half years his junior, died at age sixteen of a cerebral hemorrhage. He attended Hamilton College in New York with the intention of becoming a writer. While attending, he joined Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. He wrote for the school paper, but as an atheist, he was critical of the religious school he attended. He also attended Harvard University after receiving his B.A. in English literature in 1926. After graduation, he spent a year at his parents' home in Scranton attempting to become a writer of fiction.He tried to become a writer in Greenwich Village. He soon became disillusioned with his literary skills and concluded that he had little world experience and no strong personal perspective from which to write. His encounter with John B. Watson's Behaviorism led him into graduate study in psychology and to the development of his own operant behaviorism.
Skinner received a PhD from Harvard in 1931, and remained there as a researcher until 1936. He then taught at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and later at Indiana University, where he was chair of the psychology department from 1946–1947, before returning to Harvard as a tenured professor in 1948. He remained at Harvard for the rest of his career.
In 1936, Skinner married Yvonne Blue. The couple had two daughters, Julie (m. Vargas) and Deborah (m. Buzan). He died of leukemia on August 18, 1990, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.[14]

[edit] Theory

Skinner called his particular brand of behaviorism "Radical" behaviorism.[15] Radical behaviorism is the philosophy of the science of behavior. It seeks to understand behavior as a function of environmental histories of reinforcing consequences. Such a functional analysis makes it capable of producing technologies of behavior (see Applied Behavior Analysis). Unlike less austere behaviorisms, it does not accept private events such as thinking, perceptions, and unobservable emotions in a causal account of an organism's behavior:
The position can be stated as follows: what is felt or introspectively observed is not some nonphysical world of consciousness, mind, or mental life but the observer's own body. This does not mean, as I shall show later, that introspection is a kind of psychological research, nor does it mean (and this is the heart of the argument) that what are felt or introspectively observed are the causes of the behavior. An organism behaves as it does because of its current structure, but most of this is out of reach of introspection. At the moment we must content ourselves, as the methodological behaviorist insists, with a person's genetic and environment histories. What are introspectively observed are certain collateral products of those histories.
...
In this way we repair the major damage wrought by mentalism. When what a person does [is] attributed to what is going on inside him, investigation is brought to an end. Why explain the explanation? For twenty five hundred years people have been preoccupied with feelings and mental life, but only recently has any interest been shown in a more precise analysis of the role of the environment. Ignorance of that role lead in the first place to mental fictions, and it has been perpetuated by the explanatory practices to which they gave rise.[16]
Reinforcement is a central concept in Behaviorism, and was seen as a central mechanism in the shaping and control of behavior. A common misconception is that negative reinforcement is synonymous with punishment. This misconception is rather pervasive, and is commonly found in even scholarly accounts of Skinner and his contributions. To be clear, while positive reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the application of some event (e.g., praise after some behavior is performed), negative reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the removal or avoidance of some aversive event (e.g., opening and raising an umbrella over your head on a rainy day is reinforced by the cessation of rain falling on you).
Both types of reinforcement strengthen behavior, or increase the probability of a behavior reoccurring; the difference is in whether the reinforcing event is something applied (positive reinforcement) or something removed or avoided (negative reinforcement). Punishment and extinction have the effect of weakening behavior, or decreasing the future probability of a behavior's occurrence, by the application of an aversive stimulus/event (positive punishment or punishment by contingent stimulation), removal of a desirable stimulus (negative punishment or punishment by contingent withdrawal), or the absence of a rewarding stimulus, which causes the behavior to stop (extinction).
Skinner also sought to understand the application of his theory in the broadest behavioral context as it applies to living organisms, namely natural selection.[17]

[edit] Schedules of reinforcement

Main article: Reinforcement
Part of Skinner's analysis of behavior involved not only the power of a single instance of reinforcement, but the effects of particular schedules of reinforcement over time.
The most notable schedules of reinforcement presented by Skinner were interval (fixed or variable) and ratio (fixed or variable).
  • Continuous reinforcement — constant delivery of reinforcement for an action; every time a specific action was performed the subject instantly and always received a reinforcement. This method is impractical to use, and the reinforced behavior is prone to extinction.
  • Interval (fixed/variable) reinforcement Fixed — reinforcement followed the first response after a set duration. Variable — time which must elapse before a response produces reinforcement is not set, but varies around an average value.
  • Ratio (fixed or variable) reinforcement Fixed — a set number of responses must occur before there is reinforcement. Variable - number of responses before reinforcement is delivered differs from the last, but has an average value.

[edit] Inventions

[edit] Air crib

In an effort to help his wife cope with the day-to-day tasks of child rearing, Skinner – a consummate inventor – thought he might be able to improve upon the standard crib. He invented the 'air-crib' to meet this challenge. An 'air-crib'[18][19] (also known as a 'baby tender' or humorously as an 'heir conditioner') is an easily cleaned, temperature and humidity-controlled box Skinner designed to assist in the raising of babies.
Skinner designed this Air-Crib for his fouth child because he thought it would help parents who were awakened by their crying babies at night due to cold temperatures, and a need for essential clothing, or sheets. He thought doing so would alleviate “troublesome” environmental issues.[20]
It was one of his most controversial inventions, and was popularly mischaracterized as cruel and experimental.[21] The crib was often compared to his Operant Conditioning Chamber, crudely known as the "Skinner Box." This association with a system of experimentation and pellet rewards quashed any success. It was designed to make early childcare simpler (by greatly reducing laundry, diaper rash, cradle cap, etc.), while encouraging the baby to be more confident, mobile, comfortable, healthy and therefore less prone to cry. (Babies sleep and will sometimes play in air cribs but it's misleading to say they are 'raised' in them. Apart from newborns, most of a baby's waking hours will be spent out of the box.) Reportedly it had some success in these goals.[21] Air-cribs were later commercially manufactured by several companies.
A 2011 article by Lauren Slater[22] caused much controversy by mentioning the common rumors that Skinner had used his baby daughter Deborah in some of his experiments and that she had subsequently committed suicide. Although Slater's book immediately afterwards stated that the rumours were false, Slater also allowed the reader to believe that Deborah had disappeared, thus doing little to quash the rumors (apart from her own denial of their truth). A revewier in The Observer in March 2004 then misquoted Slater's books as supporting the rumours. This review was read by Deborah Skinner (now Deborah Buzan, an artist and writer living in London) who then in turn wrote a vehement riposte in The Guardian.[23]

[edit] Operant conditioning chamber

While at Harvard,[24] B. F. Skinner invented the operant conditioning chamber, popularly referred to as the Skinner box,[25] to measure responses of organisms (most often, rats and pigeons) and their orderly interactions with the environment. Skinner discovered that consequences for the organism played a large role in how the organism responded in certain situations.[26] For instance, when the rat would pull the lever it would receive food. Subsequently, the rat made frequent pulls on the lever.[27]
This device was an example of his lifelong ability to invent useful devices, which included whimsical devices in his childhood[28] to the cumulative recorder to measure the rate of response of organisms in an operant chamber. Even in old age, Skinner invented a Thinking Aid to assist in writing.[29]

[edit] Cumulative recorder

The cumulative recorder is an instrument used to automatically record behavior graphically. Its graphing mechanism consisted of a rotating drum of paper equipped with a marking needle. The needle would start at the bottom of the page and the drum would turn the roll of paper horizontally. This cumulative recorder was used for the Skinner box to record the rat's behavior.[24] This apparatus produced consistent and accurate records of behavior.[24]

[edit] Teaching machine

The teaching machine, a mechanical invention to automate the task of programmed instruction
The teaching machine was a mechanical device whose purpose was to administer a curriculum of programmed instruction. It housed a list of questions, and a mechanism through which the learner could respond to each question. Upon delivering a correct answer, the learner would be rewarded.[30]

[edit] Pigeon-guided missile

Main article: Project Pigeon
The US Navy required a weapon effective against the German Bismarck class battleships. Although missile and TV technology existed, the size of the primitive guidance systems available rendered any weapon ineffective. Project Pigeon[31][32] was potentially an extremely simple and effective solution, but despite an effective demonstration it was abandoned when more conventional solutions became available. The project centered on dividing the nose cone of a missile into three compartments, and encasing a pigeon in each. Each compartment used a lens to project an image of what was in front of the missile onto a screen. The pigeons would peck toward the object, thereby directing the missile.[33]
Skinner complained "our problem was no one would take us seriously."[34] The point is perhaps best explained in terms of human psychology (i.e., few people would trust a pigeon to guide a missile no matter how reliable it proved).[35]

[edit] Verbal Behavior

Challenged by Alfred North Whitehead during a casual discussion while at Harvard to provide an account of a randomly provided piece of verbal behavior[36] Skinner set about attempting to extend his then-new functional, inductive, approach to the complexity of human verbal behavior. Developed over two decades, his work appeared as the culmination of the William James lectures in the book, Verbal Behavior. Although Noam Chomsky was highly critical of Verbal Behavior, he conceded that "S-R psychology" which Skinner's system was most certainly not - the contingency (S) comes after the response(R) in operant conditioning.[37] was a reason for giving it "a review." Verbal Behavior had an uncharacteristically slow reception, partly as a result of Chomsky's review, paired with Skinner's neglect to address or rebut any of Chomsky's condemnations.[38] Skinner's peers may have been slow to adopt and consider the conventions within Verbal Behavior due to its lack of experimental evidence—unlike the empirical density that marked Skinner's previous work.[39] However, Skinner's functional analysis of verbal behavior has seen a resurgence of interest in applied settings.[40]

[edit] Influence on education

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)
Skinner influenced education as well as psychology. He was quoted as saying "Teachers must learn how to teach ... they need only to be taught more effective ways of teaching." Skinner asserted that positive reinforcement is more effective at changing and establishing behavior than punishment, with obvious implications for the then widespread practice of rote learning and punitive discipline in education. This is where Skinner's teaching machine came into play since it reinforced learning, but there was question as to whether it truly benefited learning or hindered it by making students act like robots.[41] Skinner also suggests that the main thing people learn from being punished is how to avoid punishment.
In The Technology of Teaching, Skinner has a chapter on why teachers fail (pages 93–113): Essentially he says that teachers have not been given an in-depth understanding of teaching and learning. Without knowing the science underpinning teaching, teachers fall back on procedures that work poorly or not at all, such as:
  • using aversive techniques (which produce escape and avoidance and undesirable emotional effects);
  • relying on telling and explaining ("Unfortunately, a student does not learn simply when he is shown or told." p. 103);
  • failing to adapt learning tasks to the student's current level;
  • failing to provide positive reinforcement frequently enough.
Skinner suggests that any age-appropriate skill can be taught. The steps are
  1. Clearly specify the action or performance the student is to learn to do.
  2. Break down the task into small achievable steps, going from simple to complex.
  3. Let the student perform each step, reinforcing correct actions.
  4. Adjust so that the student is always successful until finally the goal is reached.
  5. Transfer to intermittent reinforcement to maintain the student's performance.
Skinner's views on education are extensively presented in his book The Technology of Teaching. It is also reflected in Fred S. Keller's Personalized System of Instruction and Ogden R. Lindsley's Precision Teaching. The limitations of Skinner's views can be seen from his argument that it is: 'a step forward' to 'abolish' the 'autonomous inner man.' (Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971) p. 215)
Skinner associated punishment with avoidance. For example, he thought a child may be forced to practice playing his instrument as a form of seemingly productive discipline. This child would then associate practicing with punishment and thus learn to hate and avoid practicing the instrument. Additionally, teachers who use educational activities to punish children could cause inclinations towards rebellious behavior such as vandalism and opposition to education.[20]

[edit] Walden Two and Beyond Freedom and Dignity

Skinner is popularly known mainly for his books Walden Two and Beyond Freedom and Dignity. The former describes a visit to a fictional experimental community[42] in 1940s United States, where the productivity and happiness of the citizens is far in advance of that in the outside world because of their practice of scientific social planning and use of operant conditioning in the raising of children.
Walden Two, like Thoreau's Walden, champions a lifestyle that does not support war or foster competition and social strife. It encourages a lifestyle of minimal consumption, rich social relationships, personal happiness, satisfying work and leisure.[43]
In Beyond Freedom and Dignity, Skinner suggests that a technology of behavior could help to make a better society. We would, however, have to accept that an autonomous agent is not the driving force of our actions. Skinner offers alternatives to punishment and challenges his readers to use science and modern technology to construct a better society.

[edit] Political views

Skinner's political writings emphasized his hopes that an effective and humane science of behavioral control – a technology of human behavior – could help problems unsolved by earlier approaches or aggravated by advances in technology such as the atomic bomb. One of Skinner's stated goals was to prevent humanity from destroying itself.[44] He comprehended political control as aversive or non-aversive, with the purpose to control a population. Skinner supported the use of positive reinforcement as a means of coercion, citing Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel Emile: or, On Education as an example of freedom literature that "did not fear the power of positive reinforcement".[2] Skinner's book, Walden Two, presents a vision of a decentralized, localized society, which applies a practical, scientific approach and futuristically advanced behavioral expertise to peacefully deal with social problems. Skinner's utopia, like every other utopia or dystopia, is both a thought experiment and a rhetorical piece. In his book, Skinner answers the problem that exists in many utopian novels – "What is the Good Life?" In Walden Two, the answer is a life of friendship, health, art, a healthy balance between work and leisure, a minimum of unpleasantness, and a feeling that one has made worthwhile contributions to one's society. This was to be achieved through behavioral technology, which could offer alternatives to coercion,[2] as good science applied correctly would help society,[3] and allow all people to cooperate with each other peacefully.[2] Skinner described his novel as "my New Atlantis", in reference to Bacon's utopia.[45] He opposed corporal punishment in the school, and wrote a letter to the California Senate that helped lead it to a ban on spanking.[46]
When Milton's Satan falls from heaven, he ends in hell. And what does he say to reassure himself? 'Here, at least, we shall be free.' And that, I think, is the fate of the old-fashioned liberal. He's going to be free, but he's going to find himself in hell.
—B. F. Skinner,  from William F. Buckley Jr, On the Firing Line, p. 87.

[edit] Superstition in the pigeon

One of Skinner's experiments examined the formation of superstition in one of his favorite experimental animals, the pigeon. Skinner placed a series of hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic mechanism that delivered food to the pigeon "at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird's behavior." He discovered that the pigeons associated the delivery of the food with whatever chance actions they had been performing as it was delivered, and that they subsequently continued to perform these same actions.[47]
One bird was conditioned to turn counter-clockwise about the cage, making two or three turns between reinforcements. Another repeatedly thrust its head into one of the upper corners of the cage. A third developed a 'tossing' response, as if placing its head beneath an invisible bar and lifting it repeatedly. Two birds developed a pendulum motion of the head and body, in which the head was extended forward and swung from right to left with a sharp movement followed by a somewhat slower return.[48][49]
Skinner suggested that the pigeons behaved as if they were influencing the automatic mechanism with their "rituals" and that this experiment shed light on human behavior:
The experiment might be said to demonstrate a sort of superstition. The bird behaves as if there were a causal relation between its behavior and the presentation of food, although such a relation is lacking. There are many analogies in human behavior. Rituals for changing one's fortune at cards are good examples. A few accidental connections between a ritual and favorable consequences suffice to set up and maintain the behavior in spite of many unreinforced instances. The bowler who has released a ball down the alley but continues to behave as if she were controlling it by twisting and turning her arm and shoulder is another case in point. These behaviors have, of course, no real effect upon one's luck or upon a ball half way down an alley, just as in the present case the food would appear as often if the pigeon did nothing—or, more strictly speaking, did something else.[48]
Modern behavioral psychologists have disputed Skinner's "superstition" explanation for the behaviors he recorded. Subsequent research (e.g. Staddon and Simmelhag, 1971), while finding similar behavior, failed to find support for Skinner's "adventitious reinforcement" explanation for it. By looking at the timing of different behaviors within the interval, Staddon and Simmelhag were able to distinguish two classes of behavior: the terminal response, which occurred in anticipation of food, and interim responses, that occurred earlier in the interfood interval and were rarely contiguous with food. Terminal responses seem to reflect classical (as opposed to operant) conditioning, rather than adventitious reinforcement, guided by a process like that observed in 1968 by Brown and Jenkins in their "autoshaping" procedures. The causation of interim activities (such as the schedule-induced polydipsia seen in a similar situation with rats) also cannot be traced to adventitious reinforcement and its details are still obscure (Staddon, 1977).[50]

[edit] Criticism

[edit] J.E.R. Staddon

As understood by Skinner, ascribing dignity to individuals involves giving them credit for their actions. To say "Skinner is brilliant" means that Skinner is an originating force. If Skinner's determinist theory is right, he is merely the focus of his environment. He is not an originating force and he had no choice in saying the things he said or doing the things he did. Skinner's environment and genetics both allowed and compelled him to write his book. Similarly, the environment and genetic potentials of the advocates of freedom and dignity cause them to resist the reality that their own activities are deterministically grounded. J. E. R. Staddon (The New Behaviorism, 2001) has argued the compatibilist position, that Skinner's determinism is not in any way contradictory to traditional notions of reward and punishment, as he believed.[51]

[edit] Noam Chomsky

Perhaps Skinner's best known critic, Noam Chomsky, published a review of Skinner's Verbal Behavior two years after it was published. The review (1959) became better known than the book itself.[4] Chomsky's review has been credited with launching the cognitive movement in psychology and other disciplines. Skinner, who rarely responded directly to critics, never formally replied to Chomsky's critique. Many years later, Kenneth MacCorquodale's reply[52] was endorsed by Skinner.
Chomsky also reviewed Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity, using the same basic motives as his Verbal Behavior review. Among Chomsky's criticisms were that Skinner's laboratory work could not be extended to humans, that when it was extended to humans it represented 'scientistic' behavior attempting to emulate science but which was not scientific, that Skinner was not a scientist because he rejected the hypothetico-deductive model of theory testing, and that Skinner had no science of behavior.[53] The fields of Relational Frame Theory and ACT Therapy are currently attempting to analyze most of these suggestions.[citation needed]

[edit] List of awards and positions

  • 1926 A.B., Hamilton University
  • 1930 M.A., Harvard University
  • 1930-1931 Thayer Fellowship
  • 1931 Ph.D., Harvard University
  • 1931-1932 Walker Fellowship
  • 1931-1933 National Research Council Fellowship
  • 1933-1936 Junior Fellowship, Harvard Society of Fellows*1936-1937 Instructor, University of Minnesota
  • 1937-1939 Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota
  • 1939-1945 Associate Professor, University of Minnesota
  • 1942 Guggenheim Fellowship (postponed until 1944-1945)
  • 1942 Howard Crosby Warren Medal, Society of Experimental Psychologists
  • 1945-1948 Professor and Chair, Indiana University
  • 1947-1948 William James Lecturer, Harvard University
  • 1948-1958 Professor, Harvard University
  • 1949-1950 President of the Midwestern Psychological Association
  • 1954-1955 President of the Eastern Psychological Association
  • 1958 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association
  • 1958-1974 Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
  • 1964-1974 Career Award, National Institute of Mental Health
  • 1966 Edward Lee Thorndike Award, American Psychological Association
  • 1966-1967 President of the Pavlovian Society of North America
  • 1968 National Medal of Science, National Science Foundation
  • 1969 Overseas Fellow in Churchill College, Cambridge
  • 1971 Gold Medal Award, American Psychological Foundation
  • 1971 Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Foundation for Mental Retardation International award
  • 1972 Humanist of the Year Award, American Humanist Society
  • 1972 Creative Leadership in Education Award, New York University
  • 1972 Career Contribution Award, Massachusetts Psychological Association
  • 1974-1990 Professor of Psychology and Social Relations Emeritus, Harvard University
  • 1978 Distinguished Contributions to Educational Research Award and Development, American Educational Research Association
  • 1978 National Association for Retarded Citizens Award
  • 1985 Award for Excellence in Psychiatry, Albert Einstein School of Medicine
  • 1985 President's Award, New York Academy of Science
  • 1990 William James Fellow Award, American Psychological Society
  • 1990 Lifetime Achievement Award, American Psychology Association
  • 1991 Outstanding Member and Distinguished Professional Achievement Award, Society for Performance Improvement
  • 1997 Scholar Hall of Fame Award, Academy of Resource and Development

[edit] Honorary degrees

Skinner received honorary degrees from:

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Smith, L. D.; Woodward, W. R. (1996). B. F. Skinner and behaviorism in American culture. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press. ISBN 0934223408.
  2. ^ a b c d Skinner, B. F. (1948). Walden Two. The science of human behavior is used to eliminate poverty, sexual oppression, government as we know it, create a lifestyle without that such as war.
  3. ^ a b Skinner, B. F. (1972). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-553-14372-7. OCLC 34263003.
  4. ^ a b B. F. Skinner, (1970) "On 'Having' A Poem" talks about the poem, its publication, and contains the poem and a reply to it as well. Real Audio mp3 Ogg
  5. ^ Muskingum.edu
  6. ^ B. F. Skinner, About Behaviorism
  7. ^ See Verbal Behavior for research citations.
  8. ^ B. F. Skinner, (1938) The Behavior of Organisms.
  9. ^ C. B. Ferster & B. F. Skinner, (1957) Schedules of Reinforcement.
  10. ^ Haggbloom, Steven J.; et al., Renee; Warnick, Jason E.; Jones, Vinessa K.; Yarbrough, Gary L.; Russell, Tenea M.; Borecky, Chris M.; McGahhey, Reagan et al. (2002). "The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century". Review of General Psychology 6 (2): 139–152. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139.
  11. ^ Lafayette.edu, accessed on 5-20-07.
  12. ^ BFSkinner.org, Smith Morris Bibliography
  13. ^ "Within a year I had gone to Miss Graves to tell her that I no longer believed in God. 'I know,' she said, 'I have been through that myself.' But her strategy misfired: I never went through it." B.F. Skinner, pp. 387-413, E.G. Boring and G. Lindzey's A History of Psychology in Autobiography (Vol. 5), New York: Appleton Century-Crofts, 1967.).
  14. ^ Bjork, D.W. (1993). B.F. Skinner, A Life. New York: Basic Books
  15. ^ About Behaviorism Ch. 1 Causes of Behaviour § 3 Radical Behaviorism B. F. Skinner 1974 ISBN 0-394-71618-3
  16. ^ ibid. pp. 18-20 of the paperback edition which had the redacted typo s/it/is/.
  17. ^ Skinner, B.F (31 July 1981). "Selection by Consequences". Science 213 (4507): 501–504. doi:10.1126/science.7244649. PMID 7244649. Retrieved 14 August 2010
  18. ^ A photograph of one is in an archive here
  19. ^ Picture taken from the LHJ article
  20. ^ a b Holland, J. (1992). B.F Skinner. Pittsburgh: American Psychologist.
  21. ^ a b Snopes.com "One Man and a Baby Box", accessed on 12-29-07.
  22. ^ Slater, L. (2011) Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century, London, Bloomsbury
  23. ^ "I was not a lab rat" (Guardian)
  24. ^ a b c Thorne, B. M., & Henley, T. B. (2001). Connections in the history and systems of psychology. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  25. ^ Popplestone, J. A., & McPherson, M. W. (1994). An illustrated history of American psychology (2nd ed.). Akron, OH: The University of Akron Press.
  26. ^ Benjamin, L. T. (2007). A brief history of modern psychology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
  27. ^ Thorne, B. M., & Henley, T. B. (2001).Connections in the history and systems of psychology. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  28. ^ B. F. Skinner, (1984) Particulars of My Life. Devices included a potato shooting machine and a perpetual motion machine, as well as a device to separate ripe from unripe berries.
  29. ^ Skinner B. F. (1987). "A thinking aid". Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 20 (4): 379–380. doi:10.1901/jaba.1987.20-379. PMC 1286077. PMID 16795707.
  30. ^ "Programmed Instruction and Task Analysis". College of Education, University of Houston.
  31. ^ Skinner, B. F. (1960). Pigeons in a pelican. American Psychologist, 15, 28-37. Reprinted in: Skinner, B. F. (1972). Cumulative record (3rd ed.). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts,pp. 574-591.
  32. ^ Described throughout Skinner, B. F. (1979). The shaping of a behaviorist: Part two of an autobiography. New York: Knopf.
  33. ^ "Nose Cone, Pigeon-Guided Missile". National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  34. ^ "Skinner's Utopia: Panacea, or Path to Hell?". TIME Magazine. September 20, 1971.
  35. ^ Richard Dawkins. "Design for a Faith-Based Missile". Free Inquiry magazine 22 (1).
  36. ^ B. F. Skinner, (1957) Verbal Behavior. The account in the appendix is that he asked Skinner to explain why he said "No black scorpion is falling upon this table."
  37. ^ A. N. Chomsky, (1957) "A Review of BF Skinner's Verbal Behavior." in the preface, 2nd paragraph
  38. ^ Richelle, M. (1993). B. F. Skinner: A reappraisal. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
  39. ^ Michael J. (1984). "Verbal behavior". Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 42 (3): 363–376. doi:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-363. PMC 1348108. PMID 16812395.
  40. ^ The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (Journal)
  41. ^ Popplestone, J. A., & McPherson, M. W. (1994). An illustrated history of american psychology (2nd ed.). Akron, OH: The University of Akron Press.
  42. ^ B. F. Skinner, (1968). "The Design of Experimental Communities", International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (Volume 16). New York: Macmillan, 1968, pages 271-275.
  43. ^ Ramsey, Richard David, Morning Star: The Values-Communication of Skinner's Walden Two, Ph.D. dissertation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, December 1979, available from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI. Attempts to analyze Walden Two, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, and other Skinner works in the context of Skinner's life; lists over 500 sources.
  44. ^ see Beyond Freedom and Dignity, 1974 for example
  45. ^ A matter of Consequences, p. 412.
  46. ^ Asimov, Nanette (1996-01-30). "Spanking Debate Hits Assembly". SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle). Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  47. ^ ECON 252, Lecture 8 by Professor Robert Schiller at Yale University
  48. ^ a b Skinner, B. F. "'Superstition' in the Pigeon," Journal of Experimental Psychology #38, 1947.
  49. ^ Classics in the History of Psychology — Skinner (1948)
  50. ^ Timberlake & Lucas, (1985) "JEAB"
  51. ^ Staddon, J. (1995) On responsibility and punishment. The Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 88-94. Staddon, J. (1999) On responsibility in science and law. Social Philosophy and Policy, 16, 146-174. Reprinted in Responsibility. E. F. Paul, F. D. Miller, & J. Paul (eds.), 1999. Cambridge University Press, pp. 146-174.
  52. ^ On Chomsky's Review of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior
  53. ^ A. N. Chomsky, (1972) "The Case Against B. F. Skinner."

[edit] Further reading

  • Chiesa, M. (2004).Radical Behaviorism: The Philosophy and the Science ISBN
  • Epstein, R. (1997) Skinner as self-manager. Journal of applied behavior analysis. 30, 545-569. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on: June 2, 2005 from ENVMED.rochester.edu
  • Pauly, Philip Joseph (1987). Controlling Life: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504244-1. Retrieved 14 August 2010
  • Sundberg, M.L. (2008) The VB-MAPP: The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program
  • Basil-Curzon, L. (2004) Teaching in Further Education: A outline of Principles and Practice
  • Hardin, C.J. (2004) Effective Classroom Management
  • Kaufhold, J. A. (2002) The Psychology of Learning and the Art of Teaching
  • Bjork, D. W. (1993) B. F. Skinner: a life
  • Dews, P. B. (Ed.)(1970) Festschrift For B. F. Skinner.New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
  • Evans, R. I. (1968) B. F. Skinner: the man and his ideas
  • Nye, Robert D. (1979) What Is B. F. Skinner Really Saying?. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
  • Sagal, P. T. (1981) Skinner's Philosophy. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.
  • Skinner, B. F. (1976) Particulars of my life: Part 1 of an Autobiography
  • Skinner, B. F. (1979) The Shaping of a Behaviorist: Part 2 of an Autobiography
  • Skinner, B. F. (1983) A Matter of Consequences: Part 3 of an Autobiography
  • Smith, D. L. (2002). On Prediction and Control. B. F. Skinner and the Technological Ideal of Science. In W. E. Pickren & D. A. Dewsbury, (Eds.), Evolving Perspectives on the History of Psychology, Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
  • Wiener, D. N. (1996) B. F. Skinner: benign anarchist
  • Wolfgang, C.H. and Glickman, Carl D. (1986) Solving Discipline Problems Allyn and Bacon, Inc

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: B. F. Skinner
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: B. F. Skinner
[show]
[show]



Heroes Of The Taj Hotel: Why They Risked Their Lives

Indian firefighters attempt to put out a fire as smoke billows out of the historic Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, which was stormed by armed gunmen in November 2008.
EnlargeIndranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty ImagesIndian firefighters attempt to put out a fire as smoke billows out of the historic Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, which was stormed by armed gunmen in November 2008.
text size A A A
December 23, 2011
On Nov. 26, 2008, terrorists simultaneously attacked about a dozen locations in Mumbai, India, including one of the most iconic buildings in the city, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
For two nights and three days, the Taj was under siege, held by men with automatic weapons who took some people hostage, killed others and set fire to the famous dome of the hotel.
The siege of the Taj quickly became an international story. Lots of people covered it, including CNN's Fareed Zakaria, who grew up in Mumbai. In a report that aired the day after the attacks, Zakaria spoke eloquently about the horror of what had happened in Mumbai, and then pointed to a silver lining: the behavior of the employees at the Taj.
Apparently, something extraordinary had happened during the siege. According to hotel managers, none of the Taj employees had fled the scene to protect themselves during the attack: They all stayed at the hotel to help the guests.
"I was told many stories of Taj hotel employees who made sure that every guest they could find was safely ferreted out of the hotel, at grave risk to their own lives," Zakaria said on his program.
There was the story of the kitchen employees who formed a human shield to assist guests who were evacuating, and lost their lives as a result. Of the telephone operators who, after being evacuated, chose to return to the hotel so they could call guests and tell them what to do. Of Karambir Singh Kang, the general manager of the Taj, who worked to save people even after his wife and two sons, who lived on the sixth floor of the hotel, died in the fire set by the terrorists.
Often during a crisis, a single hero or small group of heroes who take action and risk their lives will emerge. But what happened at the Taj was much broader.
During the crisis, dozens of workers — waiters and busboys, and room cleaners who knew back exits and paths through the hotel — chose to stay in a building under siege until their customers were safe. They were the very model of ethical, selfless behavior.
What could possibly explain it?
Getting To The Bottom Of It
Earlier this month, a study in the Harvard Business Review proposed an answer to that question.
The study was done by Rohit Deshpande, a Harvard business professor who researches both business ethics and global branding.
About nine months after the attacks on the Taj, Deshpande was in India interviewing senior management of the hotel on a completely different topic, but found that the people he was talking to kept steering the conversation back to the terrorist attacks.
"What was interesting about all those interviews with senior management was that they could not explain the behavior of their own employees," he told me. "They simply couldn't explain it."
YouTubeAn NDTV tribute video to the brave staff of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
And so Deshpande decided to do his own investigation of the company to see if he might be able to untangle the cause.
Last year, Deshpande flew to India to review the company's HR policies and also do interviews with the hotel staff, everyone from managers to kitchen workers.
What he published in the Harvard Business Review is his case study of the company.
Now, because this is a case study and not a double-blind research study, it's impossible to draw definitive conclusions. But this is what Deshpande thinks:
"It perhaps has something to do with the kinds of people that they recruit to become employees at the Taj, and then the manner that they train them and reward them," he says.
From A To Z — Recruitment To Reward
First, recruitment. In their search to find maids and bellhops, the Taj avoids big cities and instead turns to small towns and semi-urban areas. There the Taj develops relationships with local schools, asking the leaders of those schools to hand-select people who have the qualifications they want.
"They don't look for students who have the highest grades. They're actually recruiting for personal characteristics," Deshpande says, "most specifically, respect and empathy."
Taj managers explained to Deshpande that they recruited for traits like empathy because that kind of underlying value is hard to teach. This, he says, is also why recruiters avoid hiring managers for the hotel from the top business schools in India. They deliberately go to second-tier business schools, on the theory that the people there will be less motivated by money.
And this strategy, as Deshpande points out, is highly unusual in India.
"Let me put this into a little cultural context for you," he says.
"India is a country where people are almost obsessed about grades. In order to get ahead, you have to have really high grades. But here is an organization that is doing just the opposite — they're recruiting not for grades, they're recruiting for character."
Part of this focus on character is ideological, he says.
The Taj is owned by a corporation called the Tata group, which for the past hundred years has been run by an extremely religious family that's interested in social justice: The company typically channels about two-thirds of its profits into a charitable trust.
But Deshpande says there are also practical reasons for this focus on character. The Taj hotel has made its name on customer service, and they are near maniacal about it, treating it almost like a science.
For example, managers have mapped the number of interactions that happen between customers and hotel employees in a typical 24-hour stay. There are on average 42, often unsupervised, interactions between employees and guests.
Each of these interactions is viewed by the company as an opportunity for employees to delight their customers with their kindness. So everything — everything — about the training and rewards systems set up by the Taj is designed to encourage kindness.
Deshpande gives one example. "If guests say something or write something very complimentary about an employee, within 48 hours of [the] recording of that compliment, there is some sort of reward that is made."
Rewards range from gifts to job promotions.
This system — of immediately rewarding desired behavior — will likely sound familiar to people interested in psychology.
It's by-the-book conditioning, the same kind of conditioning used by B.F. Skinner to train his pigeons.
And in his study, Deshpande argues that it is this combination of selection and routinized rewards that explains what happened during those terrible three days when the Taj hotel was under siege.
The employees, he argues, were essentially performing the behaviors they were selected and trained to perform. In this case, extreme kindness to customers.
Enabling Ethics
The reception area of the Taj Mahal Hotel reopened on Dec. 22, 2008, less than a month after devastating attacks that rocked India's financial and entertainment capital.
EnlargeSajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty ImagesThe reception area of the Taj Mahal Hotel reopened on Dec. 22, 2008, less than a month after devastating attacks that rocked India's financial and entertainment capital.
And for Deshpande, all of this has much larger implications: For him, what happened at the Taj is proof positive that organizations can create ethical behavior.
"I am absolutely convinced that corporations can enable ethical behavior, and I think what happened at the Taj on [Nov. 26, 2008] is a great example," he says.
But Tom Donaldson, professor of business ethics at the Wharton School, says producing ethics isn't so simple.
"If ethics could be engineered by the organization infallibly, we wouldn't be hearing about so many scandals in church organizations," he says.
It's not that rewards don't matter, Donaldson argues. They profoundly influence behavior, he says. But Donaldson wonders if all the training and conditioning done by the Taj can really be said to have produced truly ethical behavior. What would happen, he wonders, if those employees had confronted a different kind of ethical dilemma, one presented by the customers they'd been conditioned to serve?
"I'd like to know what a Taj employee would do," he says, "for example, if one of the guests ended up striking a homeless person, or one of the guests attempted to sexually assault a hotel worker."
It's hard to condition real ethics, he says.
But for Deshpande, in the example of the Taj and the incredible sacrifices of the employees who work there, there is still a clear, and very compelling, lesson.
"Corporate design is absolutely critical," Deshpande says. "For good, and for evil."

More Science

Podcast + RSS Feeds

Podcast RSS
  • Science

  • All Things Considered–



The trees that make the fragrant resin are declining; production could drop by half in 15 years.

Science

Trees In Trouble: Grim Future For Frankincense

The trees that make the fragrant resin are declining; production could drop by half in 15 years.
It's hard to talk over all the noise in a city, so urban birds are changing their tune.

Animals

To Flirt In Cities, Birds Adjust Their Pitch

It's hard to talk over all the noise in a city, so urban birds are changing their tune.


Comments

Sid Harth (navanavonmilita)
Sid Harth (navanavonmilita) wrote:
My dear Rohit Deshpande,
I am Sid Harth and I am not Don Juan, either. You, on the other hand, claims to be a Haaaaavad Don(key), Oops, Don Quixote, pronounced as Key Ho Tea.
Where is the he-double-l did you get your ABCs? Please, pretty please, don't tell me at Haaaaavad, at the banks of Thames, Oops, wrong river, James of Boston, Mass?
Grow up boy. There ain't no such thing as:
A: (Tatas)recruitment for traits like empathy because that kind of underlying value is hard to teach.
B: (Tatas) recruiting not for grades, they're recruiting for character.
C: (Tatas) Rewards range from gifts to job promotions.
D: It's by-the-book conditioning, the same kind of conditioning used by B.F. Skinner to train his pigeons.
You are mentioning my guru, B F Skinner. Have you met him? Talkedto him? Listened to him? Talked to his students, who became professors, deans of major universities in America? I bet my Lincoln Penny that you did not. I did.
I, once upon a long, very long time, indeed, too his summer class. I also met and talked about B F Skinner's other students, graduate students, associates in Haaaaavad, to figure him out. My professor, Oops, two, Oops, three professors knew him personally.
...and I am Sid Harth@sidileak.com
Sunday, December 25, 2011 9:39:10 PM

Ajay Ramachandran (AJSR)
Ajay Ramachandran (AJSR) wrote:
Amazing story!
The other Tata group companies especially Tata Housing Development have a long way to go - between promise and delivery,
Ajay
Sunday, December 25, 2011 11:34:20 AM

mike keith (sezwho)
mike keith (sezwho) wrote:
This is a really encouraging story. These people in India are very encouraging. Like WOW!
Sunday, December 25, 2011 12:12:17 AM

GPRP GPRP (GPRP)
GPRP GPRP (GPRP) wrote:
Sorry, that first sentence should have read "people who are MORE interested in showing empathy than in making money! The Comment doesn't make sense the other way.
Saturday, December 24, 2011 9:54:35 PM

GPRP GPRP (GPRP)
GPRP GPRP (GPRP) wrote:
Gee, imagine recruiting people who are less interested in showing empathy than in making money! Adam Smith wouldn't be a bit surprised. He considered his "Theory of Moral Sentiments" to be his most important work. He viewed the capacity to feel empathy (or sympathy) to be the essential basis of morality (and a necessary check on the acquisitive spirit that he analyzed in "The Wealth of Nations").
Don't tell the Republi-Cons and Tea Baggers, though, they'd accuse Smith (and the corporation running this hotel) of being Socialists!
Saturday, December 24, 2011 9:53:32 PM

Grey C (Grey_)
Grey C (Grey_) wrote:
So strange that most companies don't see how treating their employees well is a good investment.
Saturday, December 24, 2011 7:37:42 PM

nothing is forever (just_kidding)
nothing is forever (just_kidding) wrote:
in india sacrifice is considered as the great trait look at all Indian heros even modern ones they all have one thing in common they are selfless and sacrificed their lives for greater good.
we donot have heroes like Alexander they are not appreciated for example King Ashoka the greatest king of all was not considered great because of his conquests but because of his renunciation of power for good of the
probably these values are still present in rural areas than in urban areas.people.
Saturday, December 24, 2011 7:15:23 PM

nothing is forever (just_kidding)
nothing is forever (just_kidding) wrote:
if you can answer this question you can answer why Taj staff behaved that way.
why would soldiers sacrifice their lives for the country???
it is extreme sense of loyalty towards your country similarly TATA cultivates a sense of loyalty among its staff when a employee thinks the business is his own he is going to sacrifice anything for it, thats exactly what happened.
Saturday, December 24, 2011 6:55:01 PM

Jay Rao (JRao)
Jay Rao (JRao) wrote:
It's a combination of Indian culture, the way the employees were treated at TAJ, Serve the Master attitude among working class and the situation at that time. I think it says lot about Indian People in general not just who work at Places like Taj. If you look at the History of India, lot of people have given up life and everything voluntarily when push comes to showel. In many stores, even now they carry "Work is Worship" which is religiously followed. Majority of the working class work 6 days a week and pretty much married to their job. It reminds me of my dad who worked for 35 years for one company and was not home when any of his 7 children were born. Most believe in Destiny. Unless one is in reserve or serving in wars,or security personnel it's tough to find that in general public in western countries. It's about live your moment NOT give up your life for the moment!
Saturday, December 24, 2011 6:25:18 PM

Rob Hill (Lynx11)
Rob Hill (Lynx11) wrote:
Gunga Din (last 5 lines): Din! Din! Din! 80
You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than me, Gunga Din!
Saturday, December 24, 2011 6:00:36 PM

View all comments (66)»

NPR thanks our sponsors
Become an NPR Sponsor

podcast

Weekends on All Things Considered Podcast

Weekends On All Things Considered Podcast

Missed All Things Considered this weekend? Here's the best of what you might've missed.
Feed
Subscribe in iTunes
Listen Now

@michele_norris On Twitter

Follow @michele_norris on Twitter.

@nprguyraz On Twitter

Follow @nprguyraz on Twitter.

@npratc On Twitter

Follow @npratc on Twitter.

Posted by at

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)