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B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1948 until his retirement in 1974. Skinner developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism, and founded the experimental analysis of behavior, a school of experimental research psychology. He also used operant conditioning to strengthen behavior, considering the rate of response to be the most effective measure of response strength. To study operant conditioning, he invented the operant conditioning chamber (aka the Skinner box), and to measure rate he invented the cumulative recorder. Using these tools, he and Charles Ferster produced Skinner's most influential experimental work, outlined in their 1957 book ''Schedules of Reinforcement''. Skinner was a prolific author, publishing 21 books and 180 articles. He imagined th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susquehanna Depot, Pennsylvania
Susquehanna Depot, often referred to simply as Susquehanna, is a borough in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States, located on the Susquehanna River southeast of Binghamton, New York. In the past, railroad locomotives and railroad cars were made here. It is also known for its Pennsylvania Bluestone quarries. The behavioral scientist B. F. Skinner was born in Susquehanna. The American writer John Gardner lived the last few years of his life in Susquehanna, where he died in a motorcycle accident in 1982. The borough population was 1,365 as of the 2020 census. History The New York and Erie Railroad (later reorganized as the Erie Railroad) built a rail line through the county in 1848, including the Starrucca Viaduct: a monumental stone structure spanning Starrucca Creek. Concurrently, the railroad established workshops in what would eventually be known as Susquehanna Depot. Initially, 350 workers were employed. The line opened for traffic in 1851.Stracuzzi, Francin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julie Vargas
Julie Skinner Vargas (born 1938) is an American educator who has written extensively on the science of behavior. Vargas is the daughter of B.F. Skinner and is the president of the B. F. Skinner Foundation, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is an officer of The International Society for Behaviorology. Biography Vargas received a bachelor's degree in music from Radcliffe College, a master's degree in music education from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in educational research from the University of Pittsburgh. She was a faculty member at West Virginia University, where she and her husband, Ernest A. Vargas, taught for more than 30 years in the College of Human Resources and Education. Behaviorology: Skinner's new science Vargas has written that "What B. F. Skinner began is not an 'approach', 'view', 'discipline', 'field', or 'theory'. It was, and is, a science, differing from psychology in its dependent variables, its measurement system, its procedures, and its analytic framework". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rate Of Response
In behaviorism, rate of response is a ratio between two measurements with different units. Rate of responding is the number of responses per minute, or some other time unit. It is usually written as ''R''. Its first major exponent was B.F. Skinner (1939). It is used in the Matching Law. ''R'' = # of Responses/Unit of time = ''B''/''t'' See also * Rate of reinforcement References * Herrnstein, R.J. (1961). Relative and absolute strength of responses as a function of frequency of reinforcement. ''Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour'', 4, 267–272. * Herrnstein, R.J. (1970). On the law of effect. ''Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior'', 13, 243–266. * Skinner, B.F. (1938). ''The behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis''. , . Behaviorism Quantitative analysis of behavior Response Response may refer to: *Call and response (music), musical structure *Reaction (other) *Request–response **Output or response, the result of telecommunic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning, also called instrumental conditioning, is a learning process in which voluntary behaviors are modified by association with the addition (or removal) of reward or aversive stimuli. The frequency or duration of the behavior may increase through reinforcement or decrease through punishment or Extinction (psychology), extinction. Origins Operant conditioning originated with Edward Thorndike, whose law of effect theorised that behaviors arise as a result of consequences as satisfying or discomforting. In the 20th century, operant conditioning was studied by Behaviorism, behavioral psychologists, who believed that much of mind and behaviour is explained through environmental conditioning. Reinforcements are environmental stimuli that increase behaviors, whereas punishments are stimuli that decrease behaviors. Both kinds of stimuli can be further categorised into positive and negative stimuli, which respectively involve the addition or removal of environmental stim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Experimental Analysis Of Behavior
The experimental analysis of behavior is a science that studies the behavior of individuals across a variety of species. A key early scientist was B. F. Skinner who discovered operant behavior, reinforcers, secondary reinforcers, contingencies of reinforcement, stimulus control, shaping, intermittent schedules, discrimination, and generalization. A central method was the examination of functional relations between environment and behavior, as opposed to hypothetico-deductive learning theory that had grown up in the comparative psychology of the 1920–1950 period. Skinner's approach was characterized by observation of measurable behavior which could be predicted and controlled. It owed its early success to the effectiveness of Skinner's procedures of operant conditioning, both in the laboratory and in behavior therapy. Basic learning processes in behavior analysis Classical (or respondent) conditioning In classical or respondent conditioning, a neutral stimulus (''conditione ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random House
Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the following decades, a series of acquisitions made it into one of the largest publishers in the United States. In 2013, it was merged with Penguin Group to form Penguin Random House, which is owned by the Germany-based media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Penguin Random House uses its brand for Random House Publishing Group and Random House Children's Books, as well as several imprints. Company history 20th century Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random", which suggested the name Random ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radical Behaviorism
Radical behaviorism is a "philosophy of the science of behavior" developed by B. F. Skinner. It refers to the philosophy behind behavior analysis, and is to be distinguished from methodological behaviorism—which has an intense emphasis on observable behaviors—by its inclusion of thinking, feeling, and other private events in the analysis of human and animal psychology. The research in behavior analysis is called the experimental analysis of behavior and the application of the field is called applied behavior analysis (ABA), which was originally termed " behavior modification." Radical behaviorism as natural science Radical behaviorism inherits from behaviorism the position that the science of behavior is a natural science, a belief that animal behavior can be studied profitably and compared with human behavior, a strong emphasis on the environment as cause of behavior, and an emphasis on the operations involved in the modification of behavior. Radical behaviorism ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was acquired by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random House merged with Bantam Doubleday Dell, Doubleday's Anchor Books trade paperback line was added to the same division as Vintage. Following Random House's merger with Penguin, Vintage UK was transferred to Penguin UK. In addition to publishing classic and contemporary works in paperback under the Vintage brand, the imprint also oversees the sub-imprints Bodley Head, Jonathan Cape, Chatto and Windus, Harvill Secker, Hogarth Press, Square Peg, and Yellow Jersey. Vintage began publishing some titles in the mass-market paperback format in 2003. Notable authors * Albert Camus * Robert Caro * Joan Didion * Dave Eggers * Ralph Ellison * James Ellroy * William Faulkner * Dashiell Hammett * Jane Jacobs * Gabriel Garcia Marquez * Corma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beyond Freedom And Dignity
''Beyond Freedom and Dignity'' is a 1971 book by American psychologist B. F. Skinner. Skinner argues that entrenched belief in free will and the moral autonomy of the individual (which Skinner referred to as "dignity") hinders the prospect of using scientific methods to modify behavior for the purpose of building a happier and better-organized society. ''Beyond Freedom and Dignity'' may be summarized as an attempt to promote Skinner's philosophy of science, the technology of human behavior, his conception of determinism, and what Skinner calls "cultural engineering". Synopsis The book is organized into nine chapters. A Technology of Behavior In this chapter Skinner proposes that a technology of behavior is possible and that it can be used to help solve currently pressing human issues such as over-population and warfare. "Almost all major problems involve human behavior, and they cannot be solved by physical and biological technology alone. What is needed is a technology of huma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the Big Five (publishers), "Big Five" English language publishers (along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster). Founded in London in 1843 by Scottish brothers Daniel MacMillan, Daniel and Alexander MacMillan (publisher), Alexander MacMillan, the firm soon established itself as a leading publisher in Britain. It published two of the best-known works of Victorian-era children's literature, Lewis Carroll's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'' (1894). Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Harold Macmillan, grandson of co-founder Daniel, was chairman of the company from 1964 until his death in December 1986. Since 1999, Macmi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walden Two
''Walden Two'' is a utopian novel written by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, first published in 1948. At that time, it was considered as science fiction since science-based methods for altering human behavior were not widespread. Such methods are now known as applied behavior analysis. In this book B. F. Skinner is essentially putting forward his ideas as applied to practical everyday and communal problems, for instance how to raise children, balance work and life, or help people have happy and meaningful lives. The book is controversial because its characters speak of a rejection of free will, including a rejection of the proposition that human behavior is controlled by a non-corporeal entity, such as a spirit or a soul. It embraces the proposition that the behavior of organisms, including humans, is determined by environmental variables, and that systematically altering environmental variables can generate a sociocultural system that very closely approximates utopia. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lehigh University Press
Lehigh University Press is the publishing house of Lehigh University. It is primarily known for publishing scholarly works related to eighteenth-century studies, local history, and science and technology in society. History Founded in 1985, Lehigh's university press was a member of the Associated University Presses consortium; other members included Bucknell University Press, University of Delaware Press, Susquehanna University Press and Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. When Associated University Presses ceased most new publishing in 2010, a new distribution agreement between Lehigh University Press, Bucknell University Press, University of Delaware Press, and Fairleigh Dickinson University Press was struck with Rowman & Littlefield. The current director of the press is Lehigh English professor Kate Crassons. The press's three main areas of focus are eighteenth-century studies, local history, and science and technology in society. See also * List of English-language book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
