Editing Operant conditioning (section)

===B. F. Skinner===
[[File:B.F. Skinner at Harvard circa 1950.jpg|thumb|219x219px|B.F. Skinner at the Harvard Psychology Department, circa 1950]]
{{Main|B. F. Skinner}}[[B.F. Skinner]] (1904–1990) is referred to as the Father of operant conditioning, and his work is frequently cited in connection with this topic. His 1938 book "The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Skinner |first1=B. F. |title=The Behavior of Organisms: An experimental Analysis |date=1938 |publisher=Appleton-Century-Crofts |location=New York |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1725489W/The_behavior_of_organisms_an_experimental_analysis}}</ref> initiated his lifelong study of operant conditioning and its application to human and animal behavior. Following the ideas of [[Ernst Mach]], Skinner rejected Thorndike's reference to unobservable mental states such as satisfaction, building his analysis on observable behavior and its equally observable consequences.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Skinner|first1=B. F.|s2cid=17811847|year=1950|title=Are theories of learning necessary?|journal=Psychological Review |volume=57|issue=4|pages=193–216|doi=10.1037/h0054367|pmid=15440996}}</ref>

Skinner believed that classical conditioning was too simplistic to be used to describe something as complex as human behavior. Operant conditioning, in his opinion, better described human behavior as it examined causes and effects of intentional behavior.

To implement his empirical approach, Skinner invented the [[operant conditioning chamber]], or "''Skinner Box''", in which subjects such as pigeons and rats were isolated and could be exposed to carefully controlled stimuli. Unlike Thorndike's puzzle box, this arrangement allowed the subject to make one or two simple, repeatable responses, and the rate of such responses became Skinner's primary behavioral measure.<ref>Schacter, Daniel L., Daniel T. Gilbert, and Daniel M. Wegner. "B. F. Skinner: The role of reinforcement and Punishment", subsection in: Psychology; Second Edition. New York: Worth, Incorporated, 2011, 278–288.</ref>  Another invention, the cumulative recorder, produced a graphical record from which these response rates could be estimated. These records were the primary data that Skinner and his colleagues used to explore the effects on response rate of various reinforcement schedules.<ref name="ReferenceA">Ferster, C. B. & Skinner, B. F.  "Schedules of Reinforcement", 1957 New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts</ref> A reinforcement schedule may be defined as "any procedure that delivers reinforcement to an organism according to some well-defined rule".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Staddon|first=J. E. R|author2=D. T Cerutti|date=February 2003|title=Operant Conditioning|journal=Annual Review of Psychology|volume=54|issue=1|pages=115–144|doi=10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145124|pmc=1473025|pmid=12415075}}</ref> The effects of schedules became, in turn, the basic findings from which Skinner developed his account of operant conditioning. He also drew on many less formal observations of human and animal behavior.<ref>Mecca Chiesa (2004) Radical Behaviorism: The philosophy and the science</ref>

Many of Skinner's writings are devoted to the application of operant conditioning to human behavior.<ref>Skinner, B. F. "Science and Human Behavior", 1953. New York: MacMillan</ref>  In 1948 he published ''[[Walden Two]]'', a fictional account of a peaceful, happy, productive community organized around his conditioning principles.<ref>Skinner, B.F. (1948). Walden Two. Indianapolis: Hackett</ref>  In 1957, [[B. F. Skinner|Skinner]] published ''[[Verbal Behavior (book)|Verbal Behavior]]'',<ref>Skinner, B. F. "Verbal Behavior", 1957. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts</ref> which extended the principles of operant conditioning to language, a form of human behavior that had previously been analyzed quite differently by linguists and others. Skinner defined new functional relationships such as "mands" and "tacts" to capture some essentials of language, but he introduced no new principles, treating verbal behavior like any other behavior controlled by its consequences, which included the reactions of the speaker's audience.