On January 4, 2016, the B. F. Skinner Foundation launched a new project – Skinner’s Quote of the Day. Quotes from B. F. Skinner’s works, selected by renowned scientists, appear daily Monday-Friday in order, starting with Chapter 1 of each book and running all the way through the last chapter. We started with the Science and Human Behavior (January-December 2916), followed by About Behaviorism (January-November 2017), Contingencies of Reinforcement (January-October 2018), Recent Issues (October 2018-May 2019), Reflections on Behaviorism and Society (May 2019-February 2020), and now moving on to Upon Further Reflection (from February 10 2020).
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"In studying behavior we may have to deal with the stimulation from a tooth as an inference rather than as a directly observable fact. But if some of the independent…
"We need not suppose that events which take place within an organism's skin have special properties for that reason. A private event may be distinguished by its limited accessibility but…
"When we say that behavior is a function of the environment, the term "environment" presumably means any event in the universe capable of affecting the organism. But part of the…
"The present analysis should lead to an improvement in educational practices. If our account of thinking is essentially correct, there is no reason why we cannot teach a man how…
"So long as originality is identified with spontaneity or an absence of lawfulness in behavior, it appears to be a hopeless task to teach a man to be original or…
"A formulation of creative thinking within the framework of a natural science may be offensive to those who prize their conception of the individual in control of the world about…
"James Watt's invention of the steam engine seems much less miraculous when we have once learned about the earlier forms of the engine upon which his contribution was based." (pp.…
"The question of originality can be disposed of, however, by providing plausible accounts of the way in which a given idea might have occurred." (p. 255) Subscribe to RSS feed…
"Educational agencies established by the group provide for the transmission of the results of environmental contingencies from one individual to another, and it becomes possible for the individual to acquire…
"As time passes men react to more and more subtle features of the world about them and in more and more effective ways. The accumulation of behavior is made possible…
"Reinforcing contingencies shape the behavior of the individual, and novel contingencies generate novel forms of behavior. Here, if anywhere, originality is to be found." (p. 255) Subscribe to RSS feed…
"Man is now in much better control of the world than were his ancestors, and this suggests a progress in discovery and invention in which there appears to be a…
"We may . . . acknowledge the emergence of novel ideas, in the sense of responses never made before under the same circumstances, without implying any element of originality in…
"When a pattern of manipulation has never been applied to a particular case before, the result is, in a sense, new . . . We reserve the term "original" for…
"We saw that self-control rests ultimately with the environmental variables which generate controlling behavior and, therefore, originates outside the organism. There is a parallel issue in the field of ideas.…
"The artistic exploration of a medium may, however, proceed in the absence of any explicit problem . . . The general problem is simply to come up with something new."…
"Instances have been described in which a mathematician abandons a problem after working on it for a long time, only to have the solution "pop into his head" quite unexpectedly…
"It is either meaningless or idle to ask where the response resides until it summons strength enough to spring out into the open. We may also easily represent the activities…
"Until the functional relations in behavior had been analyzed, this could not be clearly understood; and meanwhile a great many fictional processes were invented. Conspicuous examples are the "thought processes"…
"The result of solving a problem is the appearance of a solution in the form of a response. The response alters the situation so that the problem disappears. The relation…
"Simply emitting a solution, however, is not solving a problem. We are concerned here with the process of "finding the solution. Problem-solving may be defined as any behavior which, through…
"Once the solution has occurred, the problem vanishes simply because the essential condition has been eliminated. (The same problem is not likely to recur since the situation will no longer…
"Mathematics is rich in problems, but the motivation of the mathematician is often obscure. The deprivation or aversive stimulation responsible for the strength of writing a formula which always generates…
"It is easy to give an example of a problem, but it is difficult to define the term rigorously . . . In the true "problem situation" the organism has…
"In recalling a name it is assumed that the response exists in some strength and that other information is available as a source of supplementary stimulation. These are the essential…
"The individual manipulates relevant variables in making a decision because the behavior of doing so has certain reinforcing consequences. One of these is simply escape from indecision. Conflicting alternatives lead…
"It must be remembered that formulae expressed in terms of personal responsibility underlie many of our present techniques of control and cannot be abruptly dropped. To arrange a smooth transition…
"A man may spend a great deal of time designing his own life—he may choose the circumstances in which he is to live with great care, and he may manipulate…
"Self-reinforcement of operant behavior presupposes that the individual has it in his power to obtain reinforcement but does not do so until a particular response has been emitted . .…
"The place of operant reinforcement in self-control is not clear. In one sense, all reinforcements are self-administered since a response may be regarded as "producing" its reinforcement, but "reinforcing one's…
"The individual often comes to control part of his own behavior when a response has conflicting consequences—when it leads to both positive and negative reinforcement. . . . The positive…
"When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom . . . Evidently selves are multiple and hence not to be identified with the…
"A purely private event would have no place in a study of behavior, or perhaps in any science; but events which are, for the moment at least, accessible only to…
"We may simplify the analysis by considering examples of self-control and thinking in which the individual manipulates external variables, but we shall need to complete the picture by discussing the…
"When a man controls himself, chooses a course of action, thinks out the solution to a problem, or strives toward an increase in self-knowledge, he is behaving. He controls himself…
"A common objection to a picture of the behaving organism such as we have so far presented runs somewhat as follows. In emphasizing the controlling power of external variables, we…
"An analysis of the techniques through which behavior may be manipulated shows the kind of technology which is emerging as the science advances, and it points up the considerable degree…
"Proving the validity of a functional relation by an actual demonstration of the effect of one variable upon another is the heart of experimental science. The practice enables us to…
"Implicit in a functional analysis is the notion of control. When we discover an independent variable which can be controlled, we discover a means of controlling the behavior which is…
"A special kind of chaining is represented by behavior which alters the strength of other behavior and is reinforced because it does so. Such behavior could almost be said to…
"A response may produce or alter some of the variables which control another response. The result is a "chain." . . . Some chains have a functional unity. The links…
"Supplementary variables are often used in controlling behavior. A familiar case is "suggestion," which may be defined as the use of a stimulus to raise the probability of a response…
"All sustained verbal behavior is multiply determined. When a man begins to speak or write, he creates an elaborate set of stimuli which alter the strength of other responses in…
"The presence of more than one stimulus variable in verbal behavior is sometimes dealt with as "multiple meaning." The term is too narrow for our present purposes, for we must…
"Two or more operations may combine in a common effect . . . Behavior is often most vigorous and effective when an emotional predisposition works in the same direction as…
"Suppose we approach a child who is playing happily by himself and give him a small piece of candy. We may observe the sudden emergence of a great deal of…
"A given event may have two or more kinds of effects upon behavior at the same time." (p. 205) Subscribe to RSS feed here
"Although a functional analysis begins with relatively isolated relations, an important part of its task is to show how its variables interact." (p. 205) Subscribe to RSS feed here
"It is true that the simplicity is to some extent artificial. We do not often find anything like it outside the laboratory—especially in the field of human behavior, which is…
"In a scientific analysis it is seldom possible to proceed directly to complex cases. We begin with the simple and build up to the complex, step by step." (p. 204)…