Some people worth knowing about in the Science of Behavior:

J. B. Watson. John Broadus Watson is credited with beginning the "behaviorist" revolution in 1913 with his American Psychologist article, Psychology from the Viewpoint of a Behaviorist. Watson is frequently held up as the model of the hard-line, take-no-prisoners behaviorist. A well-known quote from his 1924 book Behaviorism gives a taste for why he is viewed this way:

Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even a beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.

B.F. Skinner. Burrhus (his mother's maiden name) Frederic Skinner was born March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. His home life was noted as "stable and warm." His parents never used physical punishment, except once his mother washed his mouth out with soap for uttering a 'bad' word. He was taught strict manners and good behavior. His father was constantly re-enforcing the idea of the consequence of having a criminal mind. He would often take Fred (as he was called) to the local prison and to lectures on prison life. In his adult years, Skinner often mentioned his fear of police and prison.

Education:

Graduated from Hamilton College with a B.A. in English (date).

Ph.D. Harvard University (date)

Appointments:

University of Minnesota

Indiana University

Harvard University

Major accomplishments:

Major books:

The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1938.

Walden Two. New York: McMillan, 1948

Science and Human Behavior. New York: McMillan, 1953.

Schedules of Reinforcement (with C. B. Ferster). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957.

Verbal Behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957.

The Technology of Teaching. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968.

Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1971.

Cumulative Record (3rd Ed.). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972.

About Behaviorism. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1974.

Applying the Principles to Education.

In the 1960s, Skinner started working towards developing a teaching machine and programmed learning. In this process the subject is able to go along at his/her own rate in small stages until a body of knowledge has been mastered. The subjects are told the correctness of their answers right away so they can see where they made their mistakes, and learn from them immediately. Over the years, programmed learning has never been used by most educators, but it has been, and still is being used in business, industry, and other aspects of human life.

Keller and Marion Breland. Keller and Marion Breland, students of B. F. Skinner's, were unable to get academic positions after receiving their Ph.D.s from Harvard. This was not uncommon for Skinner's students in the 40's and 50's--students of Skinner's "rival," Clark Hull, controlled most major graduate programs, and actively discriminated against "Skinnerians" (at least this is the story I heard in graduate school from my "Skinnerian" professors!). Be that as it may, the Brelands took their skills out to California and became professional animal trainers.

I remember as a kid growing up in L.A. seeing a commercial from a local bank in which a pig picked up a coin in its mouth, carried it over to a piggy bank, and deposited it. I remember being pretty impressed with it, and wondered how they got the pig to do it. Years later, I found out that the Breland's had conditioned the pig, as well as many of the animals in Disney movies (this was before Disney started hiding phallic images in their movies).

So, the Brelands have talent, but how do you convince a CEO of a bank to hire you to make a commercial like this ? (Remember, this is 50 years ago, and the general public is largely unaware of how animals can be trained.) What Keller Breland did was invite one of his potential clients to come to a demonstration. He placed one of his highly trained chickens on a platform, with a string in its mouth. The string was attached to the trigger of a gun. The gun was pointed at Breland's head while he talked about what he could train animals to do. At some point, he paused, stepped aside, and the chicken pulled the string, firing the gun into a target, just where Breland's head had been seconds before. He then explained that this chicken had been trained to pull the string when he saw a target, which had been hidden by Breland's head until he moved aside. Breland had trusted his life to his belief in the power of lawful relationships in behavior. Supposedly, he made the sale

One of my professors in graduate school said that Breland later admitted that the gun had blanks. Perhaps, but it's still a good story.

Konrad Lorenz.

Lorenz' Hydraulic Model of Instinctual Behavior
Action Specific Energy (ASE)
	At times, determined by the characteristics of the species, there is a build-up of a drive (energy) to behave in certain ways (action specific)
Sign Stimulus (SS)
	A pre-wired environmental event (SS), when encountered, will trigger a response in the organism.
Innate Releasing Mechanism
	An inborn neural mechaonism that the individual has inherited (IRM) allows it to recognize the SS when it appears, given there has been sufficient build-up of ASE.
Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)
	With the proper build-up of ASE, the right IRM, and the encounter of the SS, the individual will behave in well-defined, species specific ways (FAP).
An example: Courtship in Stickleback fish

During mating season, male sticklebacks change physiologically (their eyes and underbelly turn red), mark out and defend a territory. When a female enters the territory, the male begins a courship dance, which the female follows. The dance leads to the nest that the male has prepared, she enters the nest, deposits her eggs, he chases her off, fertilizes them, then becomes dad until they hatch. The male has the instictual ability (IRM) to recognize the female (SS) when he is ready to mate (ASE) and court her (FAP).

PAVLOV, Ivan (1849-1936). Although he was a brilliant physiologist and a skillful surgeon, Ivan Pavlov is remembered primarily for his development of the concept of conditioned reflex. In a well-known experiment he trained a hungry dog to salivate at the sound of a bell. The bell had previously become associated by the dog with the sight of food. Pavlov's work laid a foundation for the scientific analysis of human behavior. In 1904 he was awarded the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine for his work on digestive secretions. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born in Ryazan', Russia, on Sept. 26, 1849. He attended a church school and later a theological seminary. In 1870 he abandoned his religious studies to go to the University of St. Petersburg to study chemistry and physiology. He received his doctorate in medicine from the Imperial Medical Academy in 1879 and pursued further schooling in Germany at Leipzig and Breslau. From 1888 to 1890 Pavlov investigated the structure of the human heart and the regulation of blood pressure. From 1890 to 1924 he was professor of physiology at the Imperial Medical Academy. The years from 1890 to 1900 were spent analyzing the secretory activity of digestion in animals. Through his observations Pavlov was able to formulate the laws of conditioned reflex (see Reflexes). This subject occupied much of his time until 1930. After 1930 he began to apply his laws to the study of the human mental illnesses called neuroses and psychoses. He was able to continue his work after the Russian Revolution of 1917 in spite of his persistent opposition to Communism. Even under Joseph Stalin's rule he was not hindered in his experiments. During the last two years of his life he gradually stopped his criticisms, perhaps because of increased government support for his experimental projects. Pavlov died in Leningrad on Feb. 27, 1936. --------------------------------------------------------- Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia Deluxe Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. [fix up]

David Premack.

Soon.