BF Skinner, Reinforcement, Gambling & Free Will

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This is a really good video that covers a wide array of Skinner's work and beliefs in a very short time span. What are Skinners ideas on reinforcement, gambling and freewill? How did he get the pigeons to do what they did?

3 Comments

I've seen a lot of skinner's work before and I thought the tie-in with gambeling was really interesting because it's something that i can relate with. After I turned 21 I started buying lottery tickets basically just because I could, but started buying more of them when I would win, and even thought i lost more then I gained I kept playing for a while. So it's interesting to see what Skinner's thoughts on the subject were.

I think it is interesting the way just about any animal can be trained using reinforcement because I have only ever heard of dogs or monkeys being trained. It amazes me how birds can learn these skills just like other animals with larger attention spans and how well they cooperate when being told what to do. If I could train a bird I would!!

Skinner is obviously most known for his operant conditionings and work with pigeons. What is shown here reminds me mostly of deprivation, because they stated that Skinner withheld food from the pigeon before the experiment so that when they 'peck' they are positively reinforced with food. This method wouldn't work if the pigeons were already full because that would just cause satiation and the food would almost been see as a negative reinforcer thus causing the pigeon to not want to emit the behavior that the sign elicits.

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