All thinkers

B.F. Skinner: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from B.F. Skinner, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• Slot machines run on the most addictive reward pattern psychology found

  B.F. Skinner found that rewarding a behavior after an unpredictable number of tries produces the highest, steadiest response rate of any reinforcement schedule — and the one hardes…

  — Charles B. Ferster and B.F. Skinner, Schedules of Reinforcement

• A box with a lever taught psychology that behavior is shaped by its consequences

  B.F. Skinner built a chamber where an animal's own actions -- pressing a lever, pecking a disk -- triggered food, and recorded exactly how reward schedules changed behavior. The 'S…

  — B.F. Skinner, The Behavior of Organisms

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