B.F. Skinner: Best Presentation Ever! (and his buddy Ivan Pavlov )

B.F. Skinner was a very influential psychologist in the 20th century, who also wrote many articles as books and interestingly enough created some unique inventions. After researching Skinner sufficiently in order to prepare a (serious) presentation, I have learned a great deal about Skinner’s life and his contributions to the field of psychology, specifically his theories in Behaviourism and Operant Conditioning. Furthermore, after listening listening to what everyone else had to say about other important social scientists, some clear connections can be made. B.F. Skinner is most relatable to another, arguably more famous behaviourist: Ivan Pavlov. Behaviourism is a branch of psychology that deals with trying to predict and modify human behaviour. Both Skinner and Pavlov went about this by experimenting on animals. Both experiments I would say are extremely brilliant and the results are very understandable and apply to many real life situations.

First, Skinners experiment is known as the Operant Conditioning Chamber, or the Skinner Box. Inside this box, he placed a rat (or pigeon) into a special cage, in which all of the necessities for the creature could be self obtained. There were very accessible levers controlling 4 distinct things. The first was to dispense the food, the second could pour water, the third did absolutely nothing at all, and finally the final one would offer the rat a mild shock. From this the rat learned to only press the levers with favourable results and not the other two. This demonstrated that different types of reinforcement can result in shaping behaviour, which is the basis of Operant Conditioning.

There are four major types of reinforcements: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and finally negative punishment. Positive reinforcement involves introducing a positive stimulus in order to increase the frequency of a behaviour and positive punishment is its opposite, involving a decrease in the behaviour’s frequency and an aversive stimulus. Examples of these include getting candy for answering a question correctly or a severe punishment such as jail time for breaking the law. On the negative side, there is negative reinforcement, which involves an unpleasant stimulus in order to increase a behaviour, (such as receiving a detention in order to promote being on time) or the punishment of taking away a positive stimulus in order to decrease a behaviour. (not getting anything good from the grocery store because of being greedy and trying to throw lots of stuff into the cart) All of these things feel very natural, likely because they have been experienced in various forms. Skinner’s theory was very influential in the education system. If teachers could use operant conditioning, especially positive reinforcement well, the children could be trained to learn a lot better.

Next, Ivan Pavlov’s accomplishments are also very astounding. Pavlov used a salivating dog to demonstrate Classical Conditioning. Classical Conditioning is best explained as learning through association. For example, in Pavlov’s famous experiment he trained the dog to salivate just by ringing a bell. Each night he would ring the bell while presenting the dog with meat. The Unconditioned Response of salivating would be associated with the Unconditioned Stimulus of the food but also the Conditioned Stimulus the bell. In associating the two things, after a while all that was needed was the dog to hear the bell to realize food would be coming and would therefore begin to salivate. When this happened it is also referred to as the Conditioned Response. I first learned about this in a science class where as a group we wanted to train a rat to make it through a maze composed of only right turns. Marketers use this idea as a subtle way to promote their products. For example Mc Donald’s new commercial was about a father having a heartfelt moment with his daughter after a hockey game. Without even saying anything about the food or drinks, just associating this happy moment with the store in general will get parents to also want to go there.

In comparison, both theories deal with trying to understand how we learn. Each scientist used animals in very ingenious experiments in order to analyze this more carefully. More specifically, both results are very presentable and easy to understand. They really take the idea to its most basic form and it’s very difficult to try and disagree with them, as almost anyone can think of a past experience where they may have come into play. I know that I as a high school student realize that 1 bell means start thinking about heading to class, or maybe take one more lap and two bells means I should probably have been in class by then… But just a ringing bell wouldn’t naturally do that, it was associated with the time schedule. Another similarity is that Operant Conditioning is also in a way learning through association, since reinforcement is another object that your mind connects with the desired behaviour. The difference is that they are a lot more specific and have positives or negatives attached to them, whereas Classical Conditioning can associate completely separate Stimuli together.

To conclude, both famous Behaviourists Skinner and Pavlov’s fascinating experiments resulted in very impressive theories on how we as humans learn. There are many similarities and differences between their discoveries, however without doubt both are very influential innovations in the field of psychology. Also I think my presentation was way underrated, should have been at least A+