A day of great illumination: B. F. Skinner's discovery of shaping

Despite the seminal studies of response differentiation by the method of successive approximation detailed in chapter 8 of The Behavior of Organisms (1938), B. F. Skinner never actually shaped an operant response by hand until a memorable incident of startling serendipity on the top floor of a flour mill in Minneapolis in 1943. That occasion appears to have been a genuine eureka experience for Skinner, causing him to appreciate as never before the significance of reinforcement mediated by biological connections with the animate social environment, as opposed to purely mechanical connections with the inanimate physical environment. This insight stimulated him to coin a new term (shaping), and also led directly to a shift in his perspective on verbal behavior from an emphasis on antecedents and molecular topographical details to an emphasis on consequences and more molar, functional properties in which the social dyad inherent to the shaping process became the definitive property of verbal behavior. Moreover, the insight seems to have emboldened Skinner to explore the greater implications of his behaviorism for human behavior writ large, an enterprise that characterized the bulk of his post-World War II scholarship.

Steps and pips in the history of the cumulative recorder

From its inception in the 1930s until very recent times, the cumulative recorder was the most widely used measurement instrument in the experimental analysis of behavior. It was an essential instrument in the discovery and analysis of schedules of reinforcement, providing the first real-time analysis of operant response rates and patterns. This review traces the evolution of the cumulative recorder from Skinner's early modified kymographs through various models developed by Skinner and his colleagues to its perfection in the 1950s, and then into the 1960s when it proliferated as different scientific instrument companies began marketing their own models of the cumulative recorder. With the rise of digital computers, the demise of the cumulative recorder as a scientific instrument was inevitable; however, the value of the cumulative record as a monitoring device to assess schedule control of behavior continues. The cumulative recorder remains, along with the operant conditioning chamber, an icon of Skinner's approach to psychology.

Origins of the cognitive (r)evolution

The well documented cognitive "revolution" was, to a large extent, an evolving return to attitudes and trends that were present prior to the advent of behaviorism and that were alive and well outside of the United States, where behaviorism had not developed any coherent support. The behaviorism of the 1920 to 1950 period was replaced because it was unable to address central issues in human psychology, a failure that was inherent in part in J. B. Watson's founding manifesto with its insistence on the seamless continuity of human and nonhuman animal behavior. The "revolution" was often slow and piecemeal, as illustrated by four conferences held between 1955 and 1966 in the field of memory. With the realization that different approaches and concepts were needed to address a psychology of the human, developments in German, British, and Francophone psychology provided some of the fuel of the "revolution."

Retrospective study of similarities and relations between American drug-free and European therapeutic communities for children and adults

This article focuses on the similarities and relations between the European therapeutic community for children and adults on the one hand and the American drug-free "concept" therapeutic community on the other. Both approaches are reviewed in a historical and comparative perspective with special attention to several critical issues: democracy versus hierarchy, self-help versus professionalism, psychoanalysis versus behaviorism and concept versus social learning. These two different TC-approaches can be considered as subdivisions of one modality, namely an environment for social learning in which living together in a group can be regarded as the primary agent of growth and human development. In recent years there has been a tendency towards further integration of these two approaches.

Comparative cognition in the 1930s

According to the received view of the history of psychology, behaviorism so dominated psychology prior to the 1960s that there was little research in animal cognition. A review of the research on animal cognition during the 1930s reveals a rich literature dealing with such topics as insight, reasoning, tool use, delay problems, oddity learning, abstraction, spatial cognition, and problem solving, among others. Material on "higher processes" or a related topic was prominent in the textbooks of the period. Tracing academic lineages reveals such teachers as Harvey Carr, Robert M. Yerkes, and Edward C. Tolman as sources of this interest. The alleged hegemony of strict behavioristic psychology, interpreted as excluding research on animal cognition, requires revision. Some possible reasons for this neglect are suggested.

Early ant trajectories: spatial behaviour before behaviourism

In the beginning of the twentieth century, when Jacques Loeb's and John Watson's mechanistic view of life started to dominate animal physiology and behavioural biology, several scientists with different academic backgrounds got engaged in studying the wayfinding behaviour of ants. Largely unaffected by the scientific spirit of the time, they worked independently of each other in different countries: in Algeria, Tunisia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States of America. In the current literature on spatial cognition these early ant researchers--Victor Cornetz, Felix Santschi, Charles Turner and Rudolf Brun--are barely mentioned. Moreover, it is virtually unknown that the great neuroanatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal had also worked on spatial orientation in ants. This general neglect is certainly due to the fact that nearly all these ant researchers were scientific loners, who did their idiosyncratic investigations outside the realm of comparative physiology, neurobiology and the behavioural sciences of the time, and published their results in French, German, and Spanish at rather inaccessible places. Even though one might argue that much of their work resulted in mainly anecdotal evidence, the conceptual approaches of these early ant researchers preempt much of the present-day discussions on spatial representation in animals.

B. F. Skinner and G. H. Mead: on biological science and social science

Skinner's contributions to psychology provide a unique bridge between psychology conceptualized as a biological science and psychology conceptualized as a social science. Skinner focused on behavior as a naturally occurring biological phenomenon of interest in its own right, functionally related to surrounding events and, in particular (like phylogenesis), subject to selection by its consequences. This essentially biological orientation was further enhanced by Skinner's emphasis on the empirical foundations provided by laboratory-based experimental analyses of behavior, often with nonhuman subjects. Skinner's theoretical writings, however, also have affinity with the traditions of constructionist social science. The verbal behavior of humans is said to be subject, like other behavior, to functional analyses in terms of its environment, in this case its social context. Verbal behavior in turn makes it possible for us to relate to private events, a process that ultimately allows for the development of consciousness, which is thus said to be a social product. Such ideas make contact with aspects of G. H. Mead's social behaviorism and, perhaps of more contemporary impact in psychology, L. Vygotsky's general genetic law of cultural development. Failure to articulate both the biological and the social science aspects of Skinner's theoretical approach to psychology does a disservice to his unique contribution to a discipline that remains fragmented between two intellectual traditions.

Radical behaviorism and psychology's public: B. F. Skinner in the popular press, 1934-1990

B. F. Skinner is perhaps 2nd only to Freud among the most publicly identifiable psychological figures of the last century. This article reviews the popular press coverage of Skinner between 1934 and 1990 to examine how radical behaviorism was interpreted, portrayed, and received by psychology's public. Reactions to Skinner were often skeptical or condemnatory. It is suggested that some members of the public had difficulty accepting his views because of the disparities between the philosophy of radical behaviorism and the phenomenology of everyday experience. Furthermore, Skinner's status as a psychological expert was inextricably linked to the public's perception of his credibility not only as a scientist but also as a human being.

Consciousness eclipsed: Jacques Loeb, Ivan P. Pavlov, and the rise of reductionistic biology after 1900

The life sciences in the 20th century were guided to a large extent by a reductionist program seeking to explain biological phenomena in terms of physics and chemistry. Two scientists who figured prominently in the establishment and dissemination of this program were Jacques Loeb in biology and Ivan P. Pavlov in psychological behaviorism. While neither succeeded in accounting for higher mental functions in physical-chemical terms, both adopted positions that reduced the problem of consciousness to the level of reflexes and associations. The intellectual origins of this view and the impediment to the study of consciousness as an object of inquiry in its own right that it may have imposed on peers, students, and those who followed is explored.

B. F. Skinner's technology of behavior in American life: from consumer culture to counterculture

From the 1940s through the 1970s, articles in popular magazines and newspapers presented B. F. Skinner in a wide array of guises, from educational revolutionary and utopian to totalitarian and fascist. Understanding these diverse, and often contradictory, portrayals requires a consideration of the social and political discourses in which they were embedded. In this paper, I suggest that reports of Skinner's work were influenced by a number of cultural categories, from the better living campaign of the 1950s, to the counterculture crusade of the late 1960s. Through this examination, a multifaceted rendering of Skinner's public image that takes into account the nature of his work, the context in which it was produced, and the culture in which it was received is revealed. I propose that the received view of Skinner as maligned behaviorist actually obscures the complexity of his relationship with psychology's public throughout this period.

Behaviorism and neuroscience

The influence of the methods and theories of behaviorism on theory and research in the neurosciences is examined, partly in light of Watson's (1913) original call-to-arms. Behaviorist approaches to animal behavior, particularly in the study of processes of learning and memory, have had a profound and continual influence in the area of neuroscience concerned with animal studies of brain substrates of behavior. Similarly, contemporary behaviorists have not been opposed to the study of neurobiological substrates of behavior. On the other hand, classical behaviorist views of thinking, that is, as reflex chains, have been largely discounted by developments in neuroscience. Classical behaviorism is viewed by many as being most at odds with the modern fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, particularly regarding "mind" and "consciousness." A modest attempt at reconciliation is offered.

Personal influences on professional work: an empirical case study of B.F. Skinner

This study addresses the hypothesis that individuals have characteristic ways of looking at the world that are revealed not only in their life story but also in their professional work. It seeks to provide the first empirical test of this hypothesis using systematic methods for data selection, interpretation, and matching, as applied to the case of B. F. Skinner. Using the salience identifier "primacy" (Alexander, 1990), Skinner's first research design and the first paragraph of his autobiography were selected for analysis. Adopting a personological approach to interpretation, "scripts" (Tomkins, 1987) were derived from these materials by blind and independent coders. A matching task (Allport, 1961) then indicated that the scripts derived from Skinner's work and life were substantially similar and significantly more similar than random pairs of scripts . A search through other autobiographical and professional writings by Skinner revealed that the elements of the discovered script appear recurrently in his imagery.

Clinical and statistical prediction: a retrospective and would-be integrative perspective

One of the early participants in the clinical-statistical controversy describes his effort to mediate the dispute and to direct attention to the underlying issues, to most of which the box scores were irrelevant. A previously undiscussed undercurrent of the controversy is the conflict between different metaphysical world views, the history of which for the past few hundred years is quickly sketched. The mechanist metaphysics of behaviorism, which has long been dominant in American mainstream psychology, favors objective and statistical approaches and discourages interest in judgement, an issue that nevertheless refuses to go away. Systems philosophy is proposed as an integrative alternative.

Managing the 'unmanageable': interwar child psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, London

When opened as a post-graduate teaching and research hospital in 1923, the Maudsley made virtually no provision for the treatment of children. Yet its children's department saw sustained growth during the interwar period. This expansion is explored in relation to novel behaviourist hypotheses and the forging of formal links with local government and charitable bodies. The recruitment of psychologists, educators and specialist social workers fostered a multidisciplinary approach through case conferences. This development would structure the theoretical origins of child psychiatry, in particular influencing the role and interpretation of psychoanalytic theory within it. The theoretical orientation of child psychiatry and the practical treatment of children represented an area of dynamic change and innovation at a time when adult psychiatry struggled to discover effective treatments or achieve breakthroughs in causal understanding.

Science and Human Behavior, dualism, and conceptual modification

Skinner's Science and Human Behavior is in part an attempt to solve psychology's problem with mind-body dualism by revising our everyday mentalistic conceptual scheme. In the case of descriptive mentalism (the use of mentalistic terms to describe behavior), Skinner offers behavioral "translations." In contrast, Skinner rejects explanatory mentalism (the use of mental concepts to explain behavior) and suggests how to replace it with a behaviorist explanatory framework. For experiential mentalism, Skinner presents a theory of verbal behavior that integrates the use of mentalistic language in first-person reports of phenomenal experience into a scientific framework.

A daughter's retrospective of B. F. Skinner

This paper describes characteristic behaviors of my father, B. F. Skinner, using family documents and my own recollections. Early contingencies in his upbringing strengthened his love of building things and his independence in discovering how the world works. Those skills, combined with a lack of supervision in graduate school, set the stage for his discovery of the operant. He did not stop with laboratory research. He extended his discovery of how consequences select behavior into education and the design of cultural practices. As well as solving society's problems, my father was always concerned with improving his own behavior. Some of the contingencies he set up to maximize his own productivity are described.

George A. Miller, language, and the computer metaphor of mind

This article asks why the analogy between humans and computers was understood by cognitive psychologists to mean that "minds exist and that it is our job as psychologists to study them". Earlier psychologists, such as Clark Hull, used analogies between humans and complex machines such as telephone switchboards to defend a rigorous behaviorism. How, then, did the computer metaphor of mind come to be seen as the root concept underlying a paradigm shift from behaviorism to cognitivism? To answer this question, this article examines the life and work of George A. Miller, one of the most prominent of a generation of psychologists who began their careers as "good behaviorists" but later came to embrace cognitivism.

John B. Watson's Alleged Sex Research: An Appraisal of the Evidence

In 1974, a story was published about clandestine research done by John B. Watson that was judged to be so reprehensible that it was offered as the real reason he was fired from his faculty position at Johns Hopkins University in 1920, at perhaps the peak of his academic career. Watson's dismissal from Johns Hopkins may have been the most important event in his career, and it almost certainly altered the history of American psychology. Thus, this story has great significance. The claims of the story, however, have never been validated or invalidated. This article examines the evidence for and against the existence of such research and discusses Watson's academic dismissal in light of that evidence.

Science and Human Behavior: a tutorial in behavior analysis

B. F. Skinner's Science and Human Behavior (1953) became the main source of my understanding of behavior during my first semester as a college professor in 1955 at Kansas University. It has continued to exert a major influence throughout my career as the basis for a completely deterministic science of behavior, as a handbook to be consulted as a first step in dealing with any issue in behavior analysis, and as a tutorial in behavioral interpretive analysis--in the use of a small number of behavioral concepts and principles to understand behavior of all degrees of complexity. I describe four general interpretive orientations or maxims that are of broad significance for behavior analysis, and also two underappreciated major theoretical contributions.

Westernalization in the mirror: on the cultural reception of western psychology

Miki Takasuna's paper on "Proliferation of Western Methodological Thought in Psychology in Japan: Ways of Objectification" offers many significant clues for reconsidering the history and unity of psychology. Its treatment of the reception of psychology in Japan hints at the relevance of the models of the subject for psychology--including the allegedly "official" psychology. The aim of this paper is to suggest such reconsideration, on the basis of a distinction between psychology-importing and psychology-exporting countries, and provide a reflection on the cultural problems of assimilation by the latter of a discipline advanced by the former. This perspective leads us to acknowledge the existence of a variety of psychological programs corresponding to the transformation and modernization of different social realities. Also, an indication is offered of several possible levels of analysis of such programs, which are seen to be related with the emergence of psychology as the science of modernity.

On the origin and preservation of cumulative record in its struggle for life as a favored term

This paper offers a case study of the origins, emergence, and evolution of the term cumulative record as the name for the means by which B. F. Skinner brought his behavior under the control of his subject matter. Our methods included on-line searches, reviews of Skinner's publications, and journal codings and counts. The results reveal that the term is not originally attributable to Skinner, but emerged earlier in ordinary language and in another discipline--education. It was not even original to Skinner in print in his own science. Still, the term was once original to him, which we address with additional analyses of his having originated and advanced it. We conclude with a discussion the constraints of our methods, suggestions for future research, and the variable appreciation of technology and terminology in science studies.