James Baquet

    B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) was an American psychologist whom I mentioned before as being opposed by linguist Noam Chomsky for his strictly deterministic position.

    Skinner was controversial. To some, he was a groundbreaking scientist who put the study of human behavior on a scientific footing. To others, his work was literally inhuman, reducing the behavior of Homo sapiens to that of an animal.

    As a strict behaviorist, Skinner followed in the footsteps of scientists like Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson.

    Pavlov experimented with “classical conditioning.” The famous example involved ringing a bell and then feeding a dog, until at length the dog would begin salivating each time he heard the bell. The bell is a “neutral stimulus,” and the salivation an “innate response.” Through the pairing of the bell with food, the bell becomes a “potent stimulus” that can cause the innate response.

    American John B. Watson extended this principle to the human species in what is known as the “Little Albert” experiment. The subject was an infant. Each time he touched a pet rat, a frighteningly loud noise was made behind him, until he came to fear the rat itself.

    Skinner accepted these results, and extended them to the point where he believed that human beings had no free will at all, no personal choice. Instead, their responses to anything were only the “conditioned responses” that they had learned from previous experience.

    One way he tested this was with the “Skinner box,” or operant conditioning chamber. (Operant conditioning is a variation on classical conditioning, in which behavior is learned through punishment and reward, rather than associated with visceral reactions.) This device dispenses a reward to an animal subject, such as a pigeon or rat, based on its performing a desired behavior, such as pushing the “right” lever or button. You might recognize the application of this idea to electronic games!

    Skinner firmly believed that if we could create the right conditioning, we would eliminate all undesirable behavior, ushering in a utopia.

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. previous actions

    2. existing from birth, not learned

    3. strictly following cause and effect, without any choice

    4. bringing about, causing

    5. producing liquid in the mouth

    6. gives out

    7. species name of humans

    8. perfect society (or world)

    9. based on instinct rather than intellect

    10. not morally correct