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Skinner says, he has conditioned the rats ---
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The rats say, they have conditioned Skinner ---
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In other words, who has conditioned whom? ---
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• Behaviorism:
Says that all behavior is learned through the principles of conditioning.
In a way, they claim that what we like and don't like and why we act in
certain ways in given circumstances is because we are conditioned or learned
to do so. In other words, if someone knows our past history in the way
we were conditioned, he or she can predict, in any moment and situation,
what our next overt behavior and reaction will be. Meaning, behavior will
always be predictable. There is no room for free will. It is an illusion
the fact that we like some things and dislike others. We could have learned
liking them the other way around.
• The
first scientist who discovered the conditioning principles was the Russian
physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Later, many American scientists, such as John
Watson and B.F. Skinner, studied conditioning a lot and discovered many
details. Skinner did extensive research on operant conditioning, where
the organism does something (acts) and later it gets its reward which reinforces
that kind of behavior (act). |
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