Skinner’s Quote of the Day

It had been said of Loeb, and might have been said of Crozier, that he “resented the nervous system.” Whether this was true or not, the fact was that both…

When I arrived at Harvard for graduate study, the air was not exactly full of behavior, but Walter Hunter was coming in once a week from Clark University to give…

I had had no psychology as an undergraduate but I had had a lot of biology, and two of the books which my biology professor had put into my hands…

... it is a mistake to identify scientific practice with the formalized constructions of statistics and scientific method. These disciplines have their place, but it does not coincide with the…

An experimental situation is required in which frequency may be studied. When this is arranged, important processes in behavior are revealed in a continuous, orderly, and reproducible fashion. Concepts and…

Complex activities are not always “responses” in the sense of repeated or repeatable events. They are composed of responses, however, which are repeatable and capable of being studied in terms…

What we transfer from our experiments to a casual world in which satisfactory quantification is impossible is the knowledge that certain basic processes exist, that they are lawful, and that…

For example, we determine the shape of the cooling curve with the aid of the physical laboratory. We have little doubt that the same process is going on as our…

Laboratory experimentation is designed to make a process as obvious as possible, to separate processes one from the other, and to obtain quantitative measures. These are indeed the very heart…

Frequency of response is also a useful datum when two responses are being considered at the same time. We can investigate “choice” and follow the development of a preference for…

... frequency of response is a valuable datum just because it provides a substantial basis for the concept of probability of response—a concept toward which a science of behavior seems…

. . . we must not forget the considerable advantages of a datum which lends itself to automatic experimentation. Many processes in behavior cover long periods of time. The records…

. . . frequency of response provides a continuous account of many basic processes. We can follow a curve of extinction, for example, for many hours, and the conditions of…

When we extend an experimental analysis to human affairs in general, it is a great advantage to have a conceptual system which refers to the single individual, preferably without comparison…

The usual uniformity of the results encourages us to turn—not to sampling procedures—but to more rigorous experimental control. (pp. 104-105)

If the essential features of a given curve are not readily duplicated in a later experiment—in either the same or another organism—we take this, not as a cue to resort…

. . . the frequency of response is an extremely orderly datum. The curves which represent its relations to many types of independent variables are encouragingly simple. Second, they are…

I am concerned here with demonstrating that frequency of response, so recorded [in cumulative records], is a useful and significant datum in the experimental analysis of behavior—that it is a…

If our experiment is to be automatic—and we shall see that there are many advantages in making it so—our response must operate an apparatus. The behavior should not require much…

It is possible to study probability . . . by designing a laboratory situation in which frequency of response may be easily examined. There are certain considerations to be observed.…

The basic facts about behavior can be discovered only by examining behavior during appreciable intervals of time. (p. 102)

The practical problem of taking probability as a basic datum may not be as difficult as we suppose . . . The mistake we seem to have made is in…

We are dealing here with a question of probability—specifically, the probability that an organism will emit behavior of a given sort at a given time. But probability is always a…

A science must achieve more than a description of behavior as an accomplished fact. It must predict future courses of action; it must be able to say that an organism…

The behavior of an organism is not an easy thing to describe. It is not an object which may be held still for inspection. It is a process, a continuous…

Beyond the collection of uniform relationships lies the need for a formal representation of the data reduced to a minimal number of terms. A theoretical construction may yield greater generality…

Theories are fun. But it is possible that the most rapid progress toward an understanding of learning may be made by research which is not designed to test theories. (p.…

By occasionally reinforcing a response on one key or the other without favoring either key, we obtain equal rates of responding on the two keys . . . This follows…

The appeal to theory is encouraged by the fact that choosing (like discriminating, matching, and so on) is not a particular piece of behavior. It is not a response or…

A response to one of two available stimuli may be called choice, but it is commoner to say that it is the result of choice, meaning by the latter a…

Even after prolonged extinction an organism will often respond at a higher rate for at least a few moments at the beginning of another session . . . The only…

A rat conditioned in the presence of a light will not extinguish fully in the absence of the light. It will begin to respond more rapidly when the light is…

When we fail to reinforce a response which has previously been reinforced, we not only initiate a process of extinction, we set up an emotional response—perhaps what is often meant…

. . . the law of effect is no theory. It simply specifies a procedure for altering the probability of a chosen response. (p. 78)

We do not choose rate of responding as a basic datum merely from an analysis of the fundamental task of a science of behavior. The ultimate appeal is to its…

[Many events do not occur] often enough to make a rate of response meaningful. But these activities are not responses. They are not simple unitary events lending themselves to prediction…

If we are to predict behavior (and possibly to control it), we must deal with probability of response. The business of a science of behavior is to evaluate this probability…

Progress in a scientific field usually waits upon the discovery of a satisfactory dependent variable. Until such a variable has been discovered, we resort to theory. (p. 75)

Rate of responding appears to be the only datum which varies significantly and in the expected direction under conditions which are relevant to the “learning process.” (p. 75)

To show an orderly change in the behavior of the average rat or ape or child is not enough, since learning is a process in the behavior of the individual.…

That a theory generates research does not prove its value unless the research is valuable. (p. 71)

When we assert that an animal acts in a given way because it expects to receive food, then what began as the task of accounting for learned behavior becomes the…

When we attribute behavior to a neural or mental event, real or conceptual, we are likely to forget that we still have the task of accounting for the neural or…

A science of behavior must eventually deal with behavior in its relation to certain manipulable variables. Theories—whether neural, mental, or conceptual—talk about intervening steps in these relationships. But instead of…

It would be foolhardy to deny the achievements of theories . . . in the history of science. The question of whether they are necessary, however, has other implications and…

The term theory will . . . refer here . . . to any explanation of an observed fact which appeals to events taking place somewhere else, at some other…

No empirical statement is wholly nontheoretical . . . because evidence is never complete, nor is any prediction probably ever made wholly without evidence. (p. 69)

Certain statements are also theories simply to the extent that they are not yet facts. A scientist may guess at the result of an experiment before the experiment is carried…

Certain basic assumptions, essential to any scientific activity, are sometimes called theories. That nature is orderly rather than capricious is an example. (p. 69)

Asked to describe a world in which he would like to live, a man will often refer directly to reinforcing conditions—freedom from aversive stimulation and an abundance of positive reinforcers—but…