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1、B. F. Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 - August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist and author. He conducted pioneering work on experimental psychology and advocated behaviorism, which seeks to understand behavior entirely in terms of responses to stimuli. He also wrote a number o
2、f controversial works in which he proposed the widespread use of psychological behavior modification techniques (primarily operant conditioning) in order to improve society and increase human happiness.LifeSkinner was born in rural Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. He attended Hamilton College in New York
3、with the intention of becoming a writer and received a B.A. in English literature in 1926. After graduation, he spent a year in Greenwich Village attempting to become a writer of fiction, but he soon became disillusioned with his literary skills and concluded that he had little world experience and
4、no strong personal perspective from which to write. During this time, which Skinner later called The Dark Year, he chanced upon a copy of Bertrand Russells Philosophy in which Russell discusses the behaviorist philosophy of psychologist John B. Watson. At the time, Skinner had begun to take more int
5、erest in the actions and behaviors of those around him, and some of his short stories had taken a psychological slant. He decided to abandon literature and seek admission as a graduate student in psychology at Harvard University (which at the time was not regarded as a leading institution in that fi
6、eld).Skinner received a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1931 and remained at that institution as a researcher until 1936. He then taught at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and later at Indiana University at Bloomington before returning to Harvard as a tenured professor in 1948. He remained there fo
7、r the rest of his career.BehaviorismSkinner was mainly responsible for the development of the philosophy of radical behaviorism and for the further development of applied behavior analysis, a branch of psychology which aims to develop a unified theory of animal and human behavior based on principles
8、 of learning. He conducted research on shaping behavior through positive and negative reinforcement and demonstrated operant conditioning, a behavior modification technique which he developed in contrast with classical conditioning.Contrary to popular belief, Skinner did not advocate the use of puni
9、shment. His research suggested that punishment was an ineffective way of controlling behavior, leading generally to short-term behavior change, but resulting mostly in the subject attempting to avoid the punishing stimulus instead of avoiding the stimulus that was causing punishment. An simple examp
10、le of this is the failure of prison to eliminate criminal behavior. If prison (as a punishing stimulus) were effective at altering behavior, there would be no criminality, since the risk of imprisonment for criminal conduct is well established. However, individuals still commit offences, but attempt
11、 to avoid discovery and therefore punishment. The punishing stimulus does not stop criminal behaviour. The criminal simply becomes more sophisticated at avoiding the punishment.Superstition in the pigeonOne of Skinners most famous and interesting experiments examined the formation of superstition in
12、 one of his favourite 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 birds behaviour. Whatever chance actions each bird had been perfor
13、ming as food was delivered, was strengthened, so the bird continued to perform the same actions:One bird was conditioned to turn anti-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 deve
14、loped 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. (Superstiti
15、on in the Pigeon, B.F. Skinner, Journal of Experimental Psychology #38, 1947 1(http:/psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/) The experiment might be said to demonstrate a sort of superstition. The bird behaves as if there were a causal relation between its behaviour and the presentation of food, alt
16、hough such a relation is lacking. There are many analogies in human behaviour. Rituals for changing ones luck at cards are good examples. A few accidental connections between a ritual and favourable consequences suffice to set up and maintain the behaviour in spite of many non-reinforced instances. The bowler who has released a ball down the alley but continues to behave as if he were controlling it by twisting and turning his arm and shoulder is anothe
