Skinner’s Quote of the Day

"A general conditioned tendency to behave as others behave supplements phylogenic imitation." (p. 74)

"Operant imitation requires no new evolved process. When organisms are behaving because of prevailing contingencies of reinforcement, similar behavior in another organism is likely to be reinforced by the same…

"Deferred reinforcers have a more powerful effect upon intervening behavior, and behavior must be in progress if it is to be changed by a consequence. The claim that behavior is…

"Selection did not need to respect how a bit of behavior produced a consequence; any immediate consequence would have sufficed." (p. 73)

Insects copulating simply as phylogenic behavior might not be “enjoying themselves.” (p. 73)

"Animals as well as people are said to transcend the shaping and maintenance of behavior by contingencies of reinforcement and to show insight, the development of concepts, and other cognitive…

"As I have pointed out elsewhere, the human susceptibilities to reinforcement by sugar and salt, sexual contact, and signs of aggressive damage may once have had much greater survival value…

"In the human species, operant conditioning has very largely replaced natural selection." (p. 72)

"We may have an innate repertoire of aggressive behavior, but similar behavior is generated by many contingencies of reinforcement. It does not matter whether a given instance is phylogenic or…

"As long as we cling to the view that a person is an initiating doer, actor, or causer of behavior, we shall probably continue to neglect the conditions that must…

"The field known as the experimental analysis of behavior has extensively explored selection by consequences, but its conception of human behavior is resisted, and many of its practical applications rejected,…

"We tend to regard ourselves as initiating agents only because we know or remember so little about our genetic and environmental histories." (p. 62)

"Darwin and Spence thought that selection would necessarily lead to perfection, but species, persons, and cultures all perish when they cannot cope with rapid change, and our species now appears…

"The role of selection by consequences has been particularly resisted because there is no place for the initiating agent suggested by classical mechanics." (pp. 60-61)

"Many issues that arise in morals and ethics can be resolved if we specify the level of selection. What is good for the individual or culture may have bad consequences…

"(1) Natural selection replaces a very special creator and is still challenged because it does so. (2) Operant conditioning provides a similar controversial account of the (“voluntary”) behavior traditionally attributed…

"As a causal mode, selection by consequences was discovered very late in the history of science—indeed, less than a century and a half ago—and it is still not fully recognized…

"Each of the three levels of variations and selection has its own discipline—the first, biology; the second, psychology; and the third, anthropology. Only the second, operant conditioning occurs at a…

"In summary, then, human behavior is the joint product of (1) the contingencies of survival responsible for the natural selection of the species and (2) the contingencies of reinforcement responsible…

"Verbal behavior greatly increased the importance of a third kind of selection by consequences, the evolution of social environments—cultures." (p. 54)

"... it is possible that what is unique [to the human species] is simply the extension of operant control to the vocal musculature." (p. 54)

"The development of environmental control of the vocal musculature greatly extended the help one person receives from others." (p. 54)

"The human species presumably became much more social when its vocal musculature came under operant control." (p. 53)

"Because a species that quickly acquires behavior appropriate to a given environment has less need for an innate repertoire, operant conditioning could not only supplement the natural selection of behavior…

"Reproduction under a much wider range of conditions became possible with the evolution of two processes [i.e., respondent and operant conditioning] through which individual organisms acquired behavior appropriate to novel…

"The story [of human behavior] presumably began not with a big bang, but with that extraordinary moment when a molecule that had the power to reproduce itself came into existence.…

"[Frazier:] Welfare payments are not effectively contingent on behavior. The health-giving side of operant reinforcement is missing." (p. 42)

"[Frazier:] Helping those who cannot help themselves strengthens a culture, but helping those who can help themselves destroys it." (p. 42)

"[Frazier:] Behavior becomes conscious when society gives us reasons to examine ourselves." (p. 38)

"[Frazier:] Of course Marx put it all in terms of feelings (he was not a full-fledged behaviorist, alas), but it is easy enough to put it right. It all comes…

"[Frazier:] Those who found themselves in possession of administrative power could never resist using it to their own aggrandizement. To justify themselves, they invented myths—like the divine right of kings,…

"[Burris:] Frazier had founded Walden Two and was still living there, but he was far from a leader. He had concealed his part in Walden Two as far as possible.…

"We are beginning to see why people act as they do, and the reasons are of a sort that can be changed." (p. 30)

"How much richer would the whole world be if the reinforcers in daily life were more effectively contingent on productive work?" (p. 30)

"The quality of life in the West is not the most important problem in the world today. It cannot compare with global poverty, illness, and violence or with overpopulation, the…

"When people work only to avoid losing a job, study only to avoid failure, and treat each other well only to avoid censure or institutional punishment, the threatening contingencies generalize.…

"That cultures have often turned to punitive control may be the best evidence we have that they have neglected strengthening alternatives." (p. 29)

"Historically [in education] the consequences have been almost always punitive: if not the birch rod or cane, then criticism or failure. The three classical by-products of punishment follow: escape (truancy),…

"The task of education is to build a repertoire of behavior that will eventually have reinforcing consequences in the daily and professional life of the graduate." (p. 28)

" . . . applied behavior analysis. That term is better than behavior modification because it does not mean prescribing drugs, implanting electrodes, or performing surgery. It means improving the…

"When for the first time we make a reinforcer contingent upon a response, we bring an operant into existence." (p. 27)

"Strength is a basic concept in the analysis of operant behavior, but there is no good word for it in everyday English . . . It is possible that a…

"When the vocal apparatus of Homo sapiens came under operant control, language was born and with it a much more rapid evolution of cultural practices." (p. 26)

"What is wrong with life in the West is not that it has too many reinforcers, but that the reinforcers are not contingent upon the kinds of behavior that sustain…

"Beautiful pictures reinforce looking at them, delicious foods reinforce eating them, entertaining performances and exciting games reinforce watching them, and interesting books reinforce reading them—but nothing else is done." (p.…

"We are seldom as strongly inclined to behave rationally as we are inclined to act according to experienced consequences."  (p. 22)

"Formal education is largely a form of advice, but little of the behavior shaped and maintained in the classroom is ever subsequently reinforced in daily life." (p. 22)

We escape not only the painful extremes of temperature and exhaustive work but also the mildest discomforts and annoyances. As a result, there is very little left to the strengthening…

"Helping older people to do things they could do for themselves deprives them of the opportunity to engage in reinforcing activities." (p. 20)