B F SKINNER WHO WAS HE Burrhus Frederic

B. F. SKINNER

WHO WAS HE? • Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania and died on August 18, 1990. • Skinner was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, social philosopher, and poet. • He received a Ph. D from Harvard in 1931 and remained there as a researcher until 1936. Later in 1946, Skinner became the chair of the psychology department at Indiana University. • For the rest of his career,

THEORIES OF B. F. SKINNER BEHAVIORISM • Behaviorism, or behavior learning, is one of the most influential theories of the last half century. • This theory states that learning is a change in behavior that is controlled by the consequences, either positive or negative, that follow the behavior.

THEORIES OF B. F. SKINNER OPERANT CONDITIONING • When a particular Stimulus Response pattern is reinforced the individual will respond. • Reinforcers are consequences that increase or strengthen behaviors. • Positive Reinforcement is a reward or pleasant consequence that follows behavior, causing that behavior to be repeated. • Negative reinforcement also increases the frequency of a desired behavior, but in a different way. An unpleasant consequence can be avoided if the person performs a positive behavior more frequently. • Punishment is an unpleasant consequence that stops or decrease the frequency of a particular behavior. • With extinction, reinforcers are removed, and the conditioned behavior diminishes and eventually disappears.

HOW THEORY WORKS IN PRACTICE • Breaking down complex tasks, skills and information to be learned into small subunits. • Checking student's work regularly and providing feedback as well as encouragement (reinforcement). • Teaching "out of context. " Behaviorists generally believe that students can be taught best when the focus is directly on the content to be taught. Behavioral instruction often takes the material out of the context in which it will be used. • Direct or "teacher centered" instruction. Lectures, tutorials, drills, demonstrations, and other forms of teacher controlled teaching tend to dominate behavioral classrooms.