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Shaping sometimes fails. An oft-cited example is an attempt by Marian and Keller Breland (students of B.F. Skinner) to shape a pig and a raccoon to deposit a coin in a piggy bank, using food as the reinforcer. Instead of learning to deposit the coin, the pig began to root it into the ground, and the raccoon "washed" and rubbed the coins together.
Skinner made some very effective criticisms of traditional teaching methods. [23] His scheme of programmed instruction was to present the material as part of a "schedule of reinforcement" in typical behaviourist manner. The programmed text of Skinner's theory of behaviorism is the most complete example of his ideas in action. [24]
A central method was the [1] examination of functional relations between environment and behavior, as opposed to hypothetico-deductive learning theory [2] 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.
The ideas of teaching machines and programmed learning provided the basis for later ideas such as open learning and computer-assisted instruction. Illustrations of early teaching machines can be found in the 1960 sourcebook, Teaching Machines and Programmed Learning. [12] An "Autotutor" was demonstrated at the 1964 World's Fair. [13]
The machine embodies key elements of Skinner's theory of learning and had important implications for education in general and classroom instruction in particular. [45] In one incarnation, the machine was a box that housed a list of questions that could be viewed one at a time through a small window. (see picture.)
Skinner box. An operant conditioning chamber (also known as a Skinner box) is a laboratory apparatus used to study animal behavior. The operant conditioning chamber was created by B. F. Skinner while he was a graduate student at Harvard University. The chamber can be used to study both operant conditioning and classical conditioning. [1] [2]
Skinner's behavioral approach and Kantor's interbehavioral approach were adopted in Bijou and Baer's model. They created a three-stage model of development (e.g., basic, foundational, and societal). Bijou and Baer looked at these socially determined stages, as opposed to organizing behavior into change points or cusps (behavioral cusp). [4]
B.F. Skinner was a well-known and influential researcher who articulated many of the theoretical constructs of reinforcement and behaviorism. Skinner defined reinforcers according to the change in response strength (response rate) rather than to more subjective criteria, such as what is pleasurable or valuable to someone.