9 B.F. Skinner and Operant Conditioning: Contributions to Modern Day Society

Introduction (Sophia)

B.F. Skinner’s pioneering work in Behaviourism has left a lasting mark on modern society. At the center of his legacy is the development of operant conditioning, a concept that has directly impacted the realms of education and parenting, workplace dynamics, animal training, and therapeutic interventions. In this exploration, we take a closer look at Skinner’s legacy and the modern day applications of operant conditioning. Skinner developed the concept of operant conditioning, a type of learning in which behaviour is modified by its consequences (Martin & Pear, 2019). In particular, Skinner developed the concept of reinforcement, which is the action of increasing target behaviours through the offering of desirable rewards. Operant conditioning has shaped how modern society approaches child development, especially in the classroom and through child-rearing practices. It is widely used in the workplace today in the implementation of employee rewards and promotions, benefitting both employees and managers (Aydemir, 2015). Operant conditioning techniques are commonly used in animal training in order to enforce the learning of desired behaviours (Cimarelli et al., 2021). Finally, through operant conditioning, Skinner impacted the field of Applied Behavioural Analysis and its goal, behaviour modification.

Background (Kailee; James)

B.F. Skinner was a psychologist who focused primarily on behaviour, and was a leading figure in behaviourism (Keller, 1991). Prior to WWII, in the 1930s, he would work extensively in laboratories researching animal behaviour, running behavioural engineering experiments and creating behavioural technologies such as the Skinner box, which would be “essential in providing the proper conditions for the manipulation of operant behaviour” (Capshew, 1993). Beginning with his 1930 study of the eating behaviour of white laboratory rats, Skinner would develop a research technique for voluntary behaviour that he would later call operant conditioning (Keller, 1991). By 1938, he would distinguish between involuntary behaviour or Pavlovian/classical conditioning and voluntary behaviour or operant conditioning (Martin & Pear, 2019). He viewed predictable or voluntary behaviour through operant conditioning as a step up and a step further for behaviour engineering than the involuntary behaviour of classical conditioning (Capshew, 1993).  It was during the 1930s that Skinner worked on and refined what he viewed as operant behaviour, operant behaviour being produced spontaneously rather than with a specific stimuli like that of classical conditioning (Capshew, 1993). However, Skinner noted that classical conditioning appeared to be restricted to simple and reflexive behaviour, and wanted to explore “more complex kinds of behaviour that were maintained through operant reinforcement” (Capshew,1993). Skinner would go on to develop simple and strong procedures to be used for operant conditioning, to consistently create operant behaviour (Capshew, 1993).  One example of shaping an animal’s behaviour with his operant methods was training a rat to “produce responses that were not in the original behavioural repertoire of the rat… [through the] power of operant conditioning” (Capshew, 1993). Operant Conditioning is defined as a type of learning in which behaviour is modified by its consequences, either through rewards or punishments (Martin & Pear, 2019).  Operant Behaviour is a “behaviour that (a) affects or “operates on” the environment to produce consequences, and which is, in turn, influenced by those consequences; (b) is referred to as voluntary; and (c) usually involves skeletal muscles.” (Martin & Pear, 2019). Operant conditioning works to take those behaviours and modifies and reinforces them. It wouldn’t be until Skinner’s work on Project Pigeon during WWII, an attempt to create guided missiles with operantly conditioned pigeons, that he would start to shift from working on behavioural engineering in laboratories to seeing applications for operant conditioning “applications in a variety of real-life contexts” (Capshew, 1993). Eventually expanding from animals to humans and societies, as seen in his book Walden Two, where he conceived “a utopian human society based on the principles of reinforcement  that he gleaned from his laboratory research on animal behaviour” (Capshew, 1993).

Developmental Psychology (Sophia)

Skinner importantly distinguished between informal learning, which occurs naturally, and formal education, where teachers create specific patterns of stimulus and response in order to facilitate learning (Scholar, 2024). Prior to Skinner’s operant conditioning, informal learning was prevalent in North America before the widespread establishment of formal educational institutions. Informal learning is based on experience that takes place outside of structured institutions (Macia & Garcia, 2016). Informal learning can be intentional or unintentional, and is often self-directed. Some examples of such learning include reading, gaining hands-on experiences, and conversing with others.

Following the introduction of institutional learning, Skinner believed that education could be vastly improved by the implementation of reinforcement in teaching (Scholar, 2024). He was hopeful that by applying the operant conditioning principle of reinforcement to lessons, teachers could expedite the learning process. Skinner highlighted the importance of immediate and consistent reinforcement and proposed that proper understanding and use of reinforcement contingencies could foster students’ enthusiasm and engagement in the classroom. Examples of operant conditioning in the classroom are rewarding a child for completing their homework (positive reward) or giving a child detention for misbehaving (positive punishment) (Cherry, 2023). Skinner’s concept of programmed instruction was also directly incorporated into the classroom setting (Brittanica, 2024). This concept involves breaking down information to be learned into smaller sequences, and allows students to learn at various paces.

Child-rearing practices have changed immensely over the years, influenced by various factors including cultural shifts, advancements in psychology, and changing societal norms. In order to appreciate Skinner’s contribution to child-rearing, we must delve deeply into common practices over the ages: During the Renaissance period until the mid-1600s, children were expected to contribute to familial income, despite the fact that childhood was beginning to be recognized as a distinct phase of life (Amezcua-Patino, 2023). Economic demands meant that children often had to contribute to family responsibilities. Education was closely tied to religious institutions, with limited access to formal schooling. The Enlightenment era, taking place from the late 17th to the 18th century, gave rise to new perspectives on child-rearing. Notable thinkers of the time, such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau played key roles in shaping new perspectives on child-rearing (Amezcua-Patino 2023). Locke’s idea of children as a “blank slate” emphasized the role of experience in shaping children’s minds. During this time, parenting shifted towards a bonding approach, emphasizing emotional ties between parents and their children. Beginning in the late 18th century, the Industrial Revolution marked significant changes in family structures. Parents and children often worked outside the home, separating work and family life. Children entered the workforce, shifting from farm labor to factory work, which would later spark child welfare movements (Amezcua-Patino, 2023). Fathers became primary providers and education gained importance for social mobility. Despite some economic growth, child labour and family struggles were on the rise. Finally, beginning in the 20th century, parenting saw a significant evolution driven by scientific insights from notable psychologists such as Freud, Erikson, and Piaget (Amezcua-Patino, 2023). Neobehaviourism, championed by B.F. Skinner,  emphasized the importance of external influences on behaviour. Skinner’s perspective of operant conditioning gave rise to behaviour modification techniques that are still used in parenting practices in modern society. Reward systems and positive reinforcement have become widely used tools for parents hoping to guide their children’s behaviour. For example, in a token economy system, children earn tokens such as points or stickers, for demonstrating some desired behaviour. Upon earning a certain amount of ‘tokens’, children can exchange them for some reward from their parents. Additionally, setting clear expectations to children also utilizes operant conditioning by helping children to understand consequences for their actions.

Workplace Dynamics (James)

By now, you should have a general understanding of what operant conditioning is and how it can be used to modify behaviours. We know from the previous paragraph that B.F. Skinner’s work on operant conditioning and behaviour modification has been useful as a tool for both parents and teachers when engaging in child rearing and education respectively, however, the techniques used in those contexts are also transferable to a workplace environment. That said, more research needs to be conducted utilizing operant conditioning in the workplace as the full breadth of its value has yet to be adequately analyzed in that context (Aydemir 2015).

In an experiment conducted by Komaki et al. (2011) participants were trained to monitor and engage with each other through the use of operant conditioning in the form of responding to memos with immediate (negative and positive/neutral) consequences. The positive consequences would include an acknowledgement of a participant’s accomplishment or effort (even if a mistake was made), the neutral consequences were neither approving or disapproving of their performance, and the negative consequences were pointing out any errors in a way that (crucially) was not sarcastic, abrupt, or demanding. The results of the experiment showed that “trainees in the treatment group provided significantly more consequences, particularly positive ones, even going so far as to acknowledge persons delivering bad news” (Komaki et al., 2011). In addition, managers in the treatment group were not only able to take bad news gracefully but would even thank the bearers of bad news for alerting them of current issues (Komaki et al., 2011). Lastly, of the participants polled at the end, ninety-three percent of them enjoyed the training and attested to its usefulness, noting the most valuable content was that of the “motivational techniques” (Komaki et al., 2011).

Much like a parent at home, or a teacher in a class seeks to guide their children and students toward success, so too should a manager at work with their employees. While a pat on the head for a dish well washed, or a gold star for completing your homework are a far cry from the admiration and respect of your boss, they all share a common trait, you’re being awarded with positive consequences in the form of acknowledgment and appreciation for your work.

According to Aydemir (2015), the use of psychological conditioning within organizations is vastly underutilized and under-studied. In his research article Aydemir (2015) suggests that operant conditioning is applicable to multiple areas within an organization and attempts to create a research design which would facilitate more data to be acquired and analyzed on the subject. Aydemir’s (2015) design posits some following hypothesis based on previous research:

• “Conditioning increases the motivation of the employees by increasing the safety of the workplace.” Based on information from (Johnson, 2003).
• “Conditioning negatively affects the decisions of the investors by making them fear an upcoming crisis when stimulus generalization is present.” Based on information from (Ferguson, 1989).
• “Conditioning increases the motivation of the employees by increasing the effectiveness of the reward systems when applied with a VR schedule.” Based on information from (Wathieu, 2004)
• “Conditioning increases the willingness to buy of consumers by increasing the effects of advertising when positive US are used in promotion.” Based on information from (Wathieu, 2004)

These are just some of the potential applications of operant conditioning within an organization and while it’s a good start, there’s always room for more research.

Animal Training (Kailee)

When Skinner was developing operant conditioning through his research on animal behaviour, he was aware of how professional animal trainers were already using similar methods, however he noted that they had developed those methods via trial and error instead of the disciplined research and investigation he was putting towards understanding operant behaviour and conditioning on animals (Capshew, 1993). Starting with his rats, and then moving onto pigeons through Project Pigeon during WWII, Skinner developed operant conditioning techniques for animal training (Capshew, 1993).

Today, operant conditioning is often applied in dog training, and is combined with classical conditioning when clicker training is used to enforce the learning of desired behaviours (Cimarelli et al., 2021). Clicker training is used to teach dogs new behaviours by reinforcing behaviour “by associating a specific response to an arbitrary stimulus through a positive reinforcer as in operant conditioning, through the use of a sound (a click, conditioned stimulus and secondary reinforcer)” (Cimarelli et al., 2021) Animal training in zoos also make use of operant conditioning to enrich environments, give the animal some control, and ease interactions with humans such as trainers and veterinarians (Westlund, 2014). The training of zoo animals started in marine parks, with them training marine animals for performances to be shown in front of audiences, however has since evolved into focusing on the improving and maintaining the well-fare of the animals rather than showcasing them (Westlund, 2014). The training of the animals is often occurring in formal training sessions, however informal training occurs all the time (Westlund, 2014). The formal training sessions has “the trainer … directly interacting with the animal using predominantly operant conditioning techniques” (Westlund, 2014), with the exact training methods depending on the desired operant behaviour (Westlund, 2014). The use of operant conditioning for training marine animals, such as for commercial use in marine parks such as SeaWorld and others began in the 1950’s, and the rapid expansion “of the marine park industry during this time was closely linked to the spread of behavioural technology” (Gillaspy et al., 2014) seen during this time. The operant methods of training animals were found to be effective and efficient, another “key to its rapid spread throughout the marine animal industry” (Gillaspy et al., 2014). Today, operant conditioning for marine animals is the main training paradigm (Gillaspy et al., 2014).

Behavioural Interventions (Katelyn)

In the year 1938, B.F. Skinner was renowned for the approach in which behaviours are modified by rewards and/or consequences for example through reinforcement and punishment known as operant conditioning (Martin & Pear, 2019, p. 48). The influence of B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning has been used in behaviour modifications, an example of this was in teaching a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to wear prescription glasses  (Martin & Pear, 2019, p. 48). The use of behaviour modification is not limited to autism spectrum disorder and can be used with many populations including parenting, gerontology, education, and psychological disorders (Martin & Pear, 2019, p. 63). Interestingly enough, a journal article states that there are three hundred and fifty domains in which applied behaviour analysis can be used in (Heward et al., 2022).  Applied behaviour analysis uses positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment which connects back to B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning model. However, B.F. Skinner had no intention of using behaviour applications to populations including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as these disorders were not discovered yet. B.F. Skinner’s philosophy was to understand psychology as a natural science and to understand why people behave the way they do in hopes of having a benefit to society.

Positive reinforcement is when someone in a given situation immediately receives a positive reinforcer, and they are more likely to repeat that same action in the future (Martin & Pear, 2019, p. 177). An example of positive reinforcement is giving a child a cookie right after they have sat quietly at their sibling’s piano lesson. From a behaviourist perspective, the result of this would be that the child would be more likely to sit quietly in future lessons as they associate this behaviour with the reward of a cookie or something similar. Problems can occur with positive reinforcement in that if the reward is not constant, the behaviour is less likely to continue. As well, issues with reinforcing the wrong stimuli can occur.

Contrary to positive reinforcement is negative reinforcement which involves the addition of aversive stimuli that leads to a desired behaviour (Martin & Pear, 2019, p. 410). An example of negative reinforcement is a healthcare aids refusal to bath an aggressive resident in a care facility, in response to the undesired aggressive bathing behaviour that has occurred.  A drawback of this behavioural approach is the sensitization that may occur over time resulting in not reacting to the aversive stimuli not resulting in behaviour change. However, negative punishment is the taking away of a positive reinforcer immediately after an undesired behaviour. An example of negative punishment could be taking away of a desired toy from a child who is misbehaving. Lastly, positive punishment is the addition of negative stimuli in response to undesired behaviour. An example of this is adding more chores to a child’s chore list in response to undesired behaviour. Although B.F. Skinner’s original motives were not aimed toward applied behaviour analysis as an unknown field at his time, his contributions have left a positive remark on behaviour interventions as a whole. B.F. Skinner’s contributions have motivated many others to further exploration within behaviour and behaviour interventions.

Conclusion (Katelyn)

Modern-day behaviourist approaches have been highly influenced by B.F. Skinner. The concept of operant conditioning proposed by B.F. Skinner is used across numerous fields presently including but not limited to child development, workplace dynamics, animal training, and behavioural interventions. The idea of operant conditioning and in particular the use of positive reinforcement could be a continuation of reinforcement in rewarding positive behaviours. Often, punishment may be our first response to undesired behaviours but we should also remember to reinforce desired behaviours. Further exploration within the field of behaviourism could align with B.F. Skinner’s philosophy on having a positive remark on society as a whole.

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