Drawing of Skinner Box By Andreas1 (Adapted from Image:Boite skinner.jpg) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Behavioral conditioning has played a large part in treatment of addiction.

Most of us have a picture in our minds of how an animal undergoes conditioning in a Skinner Box. In my mind, it relates to the “Pavlov’s dog” experiments.

The approaches of Pavlov, Skinner, and their contemporary, John B. Watson (the third prominent behavioral scientist of the early 20th Century) were foundational to later 20th Century research on addiction. The approaches are summarized below.

If you wish to skip this familiar territory, please visit the next page to see Professor Alexander’s deviation from such behavioral models in evaluating drug addiction: Rat Park.

Ivan Pavlov proved that learning could be enhanced by timely rewards.

In his initial experiments, Pavlov rang a bell and then gave the dogs food; after a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the bell. Pavlov called the bell the conditioned (or conditional) stimulus (CS) because its effects depend on its association with food.[6] He called the food the unconditioned stimulus (US) because its effects did not depend on previous experience.

Likewise, the response to the CS was the conditioned response (CR) and that to the US was the unconditioned response (UR).

The timing between the presentation of the CS and US affects both the learning and the performance of the conditioned response. Pavlov found that the shorter the interval between the ringing of the bell and the appearance of the food, the stronger and quicker the dog learned the conditioned response.[7]

Source: Pavlov experiment-Wikipedia.

In Pavlov’s “classical conditioning,” responses can be learned or extinguished, depending on frequency of stimulus.

Classical Conditioning
noun. Psychology
A learning process by which a subject comes to respond in a specific way to a previously neutral stimulus after the subject repeatedly encounters the neutral stimulus together with another stimulus that already elicits the response.

Source: American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

In John B.Watson’s “extreme environmentalism,” nurture matters more than nature.

John B. Watson was developing another theory of behaviorism at the time of Pavlov’s and Skinner’s work, suggesting that environment could be more important than hereditary traits in shaping an individual.

[Watson’s] balanced view of the nature-nurture issue emphasized learning — “habit formation” in Watson’s construct — as a key mechanism for understanding the impact of the environment on behavior and thereby improv[ing] prediction and control of behavior. But beyond promoting the concept of learning to the psychological research community, Watson argued that one could — and should — apply scientifically validated behavioral principles to a wide range of pressing social needs and problems (Hart & Kritsonis, 2006; Mills, 1999). His linking of the goal of prediction and control with practical application to human affairs suggests that his reason “to learn general and particular methods by which I may control behavior” (Watson, 1913, p. 168) was to promote social change that improved society and made life better for its citizens (Salzinger, 1994; Samelson, 1981).

Source: http://rmac-mx.org/john-b-watsons-1913-behaviorist-manifestosetting-the-stage-for-behaviorisms-social-action-legacy/

In B. F. Skinner’s “operant conditioning,” reinforcement of behavior by negative and positive feedback promotes learning.

Skinner’s “positive reinforcement” principal taught us to express pleasure when our child does something productive or creative, and to use negative feedback as rarely as possible.

Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher.[1][2][3][4] He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.[5] Skinner believed that human free will is an illusion and that any human action is the result of the consequences of the same action. If the consequences are bad, there is a high chance that the action will not be repeated; however if the consequences are good, the actions that led to it will become more probable.[6] Skinner called this the principle of reinforcement.[7]

Skinner called the use of reinforcement to strengthen behavior operant conditioning, and he considered the rate of response to be the most effective measure of response strength. To study operant conditioning he invented the operant conditioning chamber, also known as the Skinner Box,[8] and to measure rate he invented the cumulative recorder. Using these tools he and C. B. Ferster produced his most influential experimental work, which appeared in the book Schedules of Reinforcement.[9][10]

Skinner developed a philosophy of science that he called radical behaviorism,[11] and founded a school of experimental research psychology—the experimental analysis of behavior. He imagined the application of his ideas to the design of a human community in his utopian novel Walden Two,[12] and his analysis of human behavior culminated in his work Verbal Behavior.[13]

Skinner was a prolific author who published 21 books and 180 articles.[14][15] Contemporary academia considers Skinner a pioneer of modern behaviorism along with John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov. A June 2002 survey listed Skinner as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.[16]

Skinner provided a teaching model based on reinforcement or punishment of observable behavior.

Skinner was dissatisfied with psychological theory that could not be objectively measured.

Behaviorist B.F. Skinner derived the reinforcement theory, one of the oldest theories of motivation, as a way to explain behavior and why we do what we do. The theory may also be known as Behaviorism, or Operant Conditioning, which is still commonly taught in psychology today. The theory states that “an individual’s behavior is a function of its consequences.” (Management Study Guide, 2013)

Behaviorism evolved out of frustration with the introspective techniques of humanism and psychoanalysis, as some researchers were dissatisfied with the lack of directly observable phenomena that could be measured and experimented with. In their opinion, it would make the discipline of Psychology more “scientific” and on par with the core sciences. These researchers turned to exploring only the behaviors that could be observed and measured, and away from the mysterious workings of the mind. (Funder, 2010)

The science of psychology that is often associated with the current era may be considered inadmissible to those that follow Skinner’s beliefs. Psychology has frequently been associated with the human mind and the evolution of cognitive awareness, causing Skinner to move in a different direction.

By applying his thoughts on adjusting motivation through various stimuli, industries such as business, government, education, prisons, and mental institutions can gain a broader understanding of human behavior. “In understanding why any organism behaves the way it does, Skinner saw no place for dwelling on a person’s intentions or goals.” (Banaji, 2011) For him, it was outward behavior and its environment that mattered.

His most important contribution to psychological science was the concept of reinforcement, formalized in his principles of operant conditioning. This was in contrast to Ivan Pavlov’s principles of classical conditioning, which along with J.B. Watson’s extreme environmentalism, strongly influenced his own thinking.

Skinner advocated positive and negative reinforcement, and identified the shortcomings of positive and negative punishment.

Reinforcement theory has been used in many areas of study to include animal training, raising children, and motivating employees in the workplace. Reinforcement theories focus on observable behavior rather than needs theories that focus on personal states. Reinforcement theory is a form of operant conditioning and focuses on the environmental factors that contribute to shaping behavior. Simply put, reinforcement theory claims that stimuli are used to shape behaviors.

There are four primary approaches to reinforcement theory: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, and punishment, which will be covered in a later paragraph. By analyzing the various components of the Law of Effect and the possible approaches, we can achieve desired results through its application within the workplace.

For more on this subject see our source: reinforcement theory.

Visit the next page to see Professor Alexander’s description of how the Skinner Box was used as a tool to study addiction in the 1960s and how he developed Rat Park as a response.