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B. F. Skinner is a famous psychologist born on March 20, 1904 in a town called

Susquehanna. He grew up with his father, mother and his brother. The mother stayed home to
take care of her children, while his dad went to work as a lawyer. His brother who was 2 years
younger than him died at the age of 16 from a cerebral aneurism. He loved inventing and
building things at a very young age things like roller scooters, steerable wagons, and sleds. He
also made a system that can separate green and ripe berries. Later his passion was transferred to
writing while attending the Hamilton College. He was finished the college with a bachelor of arts
in English literature. After graduating B. F. Skinner wrote his first book Digest of Decisions of
the Anthracite Board of Conciliation and tried to be a professional writer, and but it was not
doing well. During his unsuccessful career, he came across the works of Watson and Pavlov, and
it inspired him so much that he decided to change career to become a psychologist. He went to
Harvard University, and got his doctorate in psychology. In 1936, he married Yvonne Blue who
was majored in English. This allowed him to incorporate both English and psychology in to his
life. He acquired many awards during his life, such as Gold Medal of the American
Psychological Foundation in 1971, and the Human of the Year Award in 1972. Later on Skinner
came down with leukemia and following year he died by it in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on
August 18, 1990.
B. F. Skinner is one of the major contributors to the behaviorism theory, which implies
that there is no free will, and behaviors are only a reaction to some stimulus. He is famous for his
research on a learning theory called operant conditioning. This term mean that when a specific
behavior is shown, and is reinforced, its more likely to happen again. Also if a behavior is
shown and is punished, its less likely to happen again.
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To study in depth about operant conditioning, skinner developed something called
conditioning apparatus also know as Skinner box. It is a box with a lever on the inside. Food or
will come out when the lever is activated. Then a rat is placed inside the box to see if it s possible
to teach it to press the lever. Whenever it pressed the lever the behavior got reinforced and the rat
kept and activating the lever until the rat was full. This experiment was successful. He also
performed a similar experiment on pigeons. Whenever he saw the pigeons performing a desired
action, he reinforced it. Using this method he successfully taught pigeons to dance.
From his different experiments B. F. Skinner discovered that for the action to be repeated
it must be reinforced in a schedule. It can be either continuously reinforced or partially
reinforced. Continually reinforcing is only good when the behavior is being learned and after that
its better to use one of the four partial reinforcing methods. The first one is reinforcing after a
specific number of responses which is called Fixed-ratio schedules. The second one is
reinforcing after a random amount of responses and is called Variable-ratio schedules. Fixed-
interval schedules reinforces only after a specific amount of time has passed from the response
and the final method reinforces only after a random amount of time has passed from a response
which is Variable-interval schedules.
In conclusion, B. F. Skinner contributed greatly to the modern learning environment.
Many of the computer programs today use operant conditioning to make students do a specific
task and reinforce it to keep them continuing to do it. Thats why many students now enjoy using
computer to learn.


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Work cited
Cherry, Kendra. "B. F. Skinner Biography (1904-1990)." About.com Psychology. About.com,
2014. Web. 15 June 2014.
Cherry, Kendra. "Schedules of Reinforcement." About.com. Psychology, 2014. Web. 15 June
2014.
Shelly, Gary B., Glenda A. Gunter, and Randolph E. Gunter. "Learning Theories and
Educational Research." Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology in a
Connected World. 7th ed. Boston: Shelly Cashman Series, 2012. 257-72. Print.
Skinner, Burrhus Frederic. "B.F. Skinner Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television,
2014. Web. 15 June 2014.
Swenson, Christa. "Burrhus Frederick Skinner." Psychology History. Department of Psychology,
May 1999. Web. 14 June 2014.