Reference Information
Title: Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
Author: Lauren Slater
Editor: W.W Norton & Company, 2008
Chapter 1: Opening Skinner's Box
Summary
This chapter discusses the psychological experiments of B. F. Skinner, in which he created operated conditioning, a process by which a human can train another human or animal for perform tasks or skills they would not normally do based on a system of rewards and reinforcements. The author discusses how Skinner was regarded as controversial by many, in that his experiments could be argued to show that humans have no free will. Ultimately, he produced quantifiable data on how organisms learn and how the outcome of learning can be predicted and controlled, which has been useful in many different ways.
Discussion
I like the author's style of explaining these great psychological experiments. She uses a narrative form that kept me interested and wanting to read more. In addition, I found Skinner's experiments to be very interesting and thought-provoking, and I can see how they have influenced or explain many factors in today's world.
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