Skinner, Burrhus Frederic


Skinner, Burrhus Frederic

An American psychologist (1904–1990) who was at the forefront of the behaviourism school of psychology, which explains human and animal behaviour as a direct response to external stimuli; his pivotal work, Science and Human Behaviour, was published in 1953. Skinner’s construct of behaviour has fallen somewhat out of favour, as humans, being sentient beings, do not generally respond in a simplistic cause-and-effect manner to environmental cues. Skinner spent most of his professional life at Harvard.

Skinner,

Burrhus Frederic, U.S. psychologist, 1904-1990. Skinner box - an experimental apparatus in which an animal presses a lever to obtain a reward or receive punishment.skinnerian conditioning - an experimenter waits for the target response to be conditioned to occur spontaneously, immediately after which the organism is given a reinforcer reward. Synonym(s): operant conditioning