Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
B.F. Skinner
Introduction Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images
B.F. Skinner Diagram of a Skinner box showing a rat inside an operant conditioning chamber with a lever, signal lights, pellet dispenser, speaker, and an electric grid floor connected to a shock generator.
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
B.F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner The behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner, 1971.

B.F. Skinner

American psychologist
Also known as: Burrhus Frederic Skinner
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
Last updated
•History

B.F. Skinner (born March 20, 1904, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died August 18, 1990, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American psychologist and an influential exponent of behaviourism, which views human behaviour in terms of responses to environmental stimuli and favours the controlled, scientific study of responses as the most direct means of elucidating human nature. Skinner was attracted to psychology through the work of the Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov on conditioned reflexes, articles on behaviourism by Bertrand...

Discover the world with Britannica

Subscribe to Continue Reading

Free Trial | No Ads | Exclusive Content
Explore Subscriptions
DNA
Right
Mobile