Skinner’s Quote of the Day

The step-by-step shaping of complex behavior was first demonstrated in an experimental analysis, and the technique is probably still best seen in experiments with animals. (p. 274)

[A token economy community] has been called a “prosthetic” environment. Like eye glasses, hearing aids, and artificial limbs, it permits people to behave successfully in spite of defects. (p. 274)

. . . man is an animal, although an extraordinarily complex one, and shares many basic behavioral processes with other species. Human behavior must nevertheless be studied in its own…

As more and more complex contingencies have been arranged, it has been possible to study more and more complex kinds of behavior, including behavior once attributed to higher mental processes.…

Behavior which acts upon the environment to produce consequences—“operant” behavior—has been experimentally analyzed in great detail. (p. 273)

The “reasons” why men behave are to be found among the consequences of their behavior—what, to put it roughly, they “get out of behaving in given ways.” (p. 273)

Most students come and behave in order to avoid consequences of not doing so. (p. 271)

The change which occurs in a student as the result of spending one day in high school is discouragingly small. (p. 270)

Teachers need to be retrained as skillful behavioral engineers.

To remove the mystery, we must define our goals in the most explicit way. And we can then begin to teach. (p. 263)

If we announce that we are interested in giving the student a thorough knowledge of a science, a grasp of its structure, an understanding of its basic relations, we shall…

Statements of educational policy are replete with [mentalistic expressions] . . . It would be a mistake to underestimate their power, for they are supported by ancient systems of psychology…

The commonest practice in high school as well as college is still “assign and test.” We tell the student what he is to learn and hold him responsible for learning…

It is characteristic of the successful scientist, for example, that he continues to work for long periods when nothing interesting is happening. That kind of dedication can be instilled in…

The important thing is for the student to discover that interesting things happen when he attends to something which, on its face, is not interesting at all. (p. 258)

A student who is not paying attention is obviously not learning, and the teacher is therefore reinforced when he behaves in ways which attract attention . . . But to…

It is true that scientists occasionally discuss things among themselves, but the creative interchanges are more likely to be between men and things than between men and men. (p. 258)

The significant results of teaching lie in that distant future in which students make use of what they have learned, and it is a future usually closed to the teacher…

From his study of the behavior of the individual student, the investigator gains a special kind of confidence. He usually knows what he has done to get one effect and…

The programing of schedules of reinforcement is a promising alternative to the aversive control which, in spite of repeated reforms, still prevails in educational practice. (p. 248)

Appropriate terminal schedules of reinforcement will maintain the student’s interest, make him industrious and persevering, stimulate his curiosity, and so on; but less demanding schedules, carefully designed to maintain the…

A teaching method is simply a way of arranging an environment which expedites learning. (p. 247)

[A behavioristic formulation] is merely an effective formulation of those activities of teacher and student which have always been the concern of educational specialists. (p.247)

Contrary to frequent assertions, a behavioristic formulation of human behavior is not a crude positivism which rejects mental processes because they are not accessible to the scientific public. (p. 247)

Perhaps we could answer by redefining traditional goals: Instead of imparting knowledge, we could undertake to bring about those changes in behavior which are said to be the conspicuous manifestations…

There have been many good teachers who have supposed themselves to be working on the minds of their students, but their actual practices and the results of those practices can…

Traditional specifications of the goals of education have never told the teacher what to do upon a given occasion. No one knows how to alter a mental process or strengthen…

In reply to the complaint that he has not produced observable results, the teacher of the mind can lay claim to invisible achievements . . . They may not be…

The teacher begins with whatever behavior the student brings to the instructional situation; by selective reinforcement, he changes that behavior so that a given terminal performance is more and more…

An important contribution has been the so-called “programing” of knowledge and skills —the construction of carefully arranged sequences of contingencies leading to the terminal performances which are the object of…

The power of reinforcement is not easily appreciated by those who have not had firsthand experience in its use or have not at least seen some sort of experimental demonstration.…

The growing effectiveness of an experimental analysis is still not widely recognized, even within the behavioral sciences themselves, but the implications of some of its achievements for education can no…

Teaching is the expediting of learning. Students learn without teaching, but the teacher arranges conditions under which they learn more rapidly and effectively. (p. 241)

Those who have had anything useful to say [about teaching machines] have said it far too often, and those who have had nothing to say have been no more reticent.…

The goal of education should be nothing short of the fullest possible development of the human organism. An experimental analysis of behavior, carried out under the advantageous conditions of the…

When the nature of the human organism is better understood, we may begin to consider not only what man has already shown himself to be, but what he may become…

Another activity associated with thinking is studying—not merely looking at a text and reading it but looking and reading for the sake of future action. (p. 237)

Whenever a teacher attracts the attention of a student, he deprives him of an opportunity to learn to pay attention. (p. 237)

There is another sense in which the student must learn to think. Verbal and nonverbal repertoires may prepare him to behave in effective ways, but he will inevitably face novel…

One might attack the problem [of teaching an example of nonverbal musical thinking] by setting up an explicit kinesthetic repertoire in which “thinking a pitch” takes the form of identifying…

. . . multiple-choice material violates a basic principle of good programming by inducing the student to engage in erroneous behavior. (p. 234)

Of course we learn something from our mistakes—for one thing, we learn not to make them again—but we acquire behavior in other ways. (p. 233)

. . . when material is carefully programmed, both subhuman and human subjects can learn while making few errors or even none at all. (p. 233)

The concept of “a knowledge of French” offers very little help to the would-be teacher. As in the case of reading, we must turn to the behavioral repertoires themselves, for…

In spite of discouraging evidence to the contrary, it is still supposed that if you tell a student something, he then knows it. (p. 228)

In summary, then, machine teaching is unusually efficient because (1) the student is frequently and immediately reinforced, (2) he is free to move at his natural rate, and (3) he…

Some of those most active in improving education have been tempted to dismiss slow students impatiently as a waste of time, but it is quite possible that many of them…

The effect of pressure to move beyond one’s natural speed is cumulative. The student who has not fully mastered a first lesson is less able to master a second. His…

In trying to teach more than one student at once we harm both fast and slow learners. The plight of the good student has been recognized, but the slow learner…

[With the teaching machine, the student] has no reason to be anxious about impending examinations, for none are required. Both he and his instructor know where he stands at all…