Abstract
The purpose of this article is to provide a coherent story of Skinner’s graduate-school (1928–1931) research projects, adding to Skinner’s own accounts a different emphasis and a number of interesting details. The story is guided by the proposal that a search for quantitative order was the “unifying force” amid the variety of apparatus changes and shifts of research topic in Skinner’s early development as a researcher. Archival laboratory-research records from several apparatuses which Skinner constructed between 1928 and 1931 (1) indicate that his research program was more complicated than he has implied; (2) show that he worked on three interdependent lines of investigation simultaneously; (3) suggest that change or abandonment of an apparatus or a project was markedly affected by his success (and failure) in his primary objective, which was to find quantitative orderliness in measured behavior. Frequent apparatus change in the period of 1928 to 1930 ceased when he obtained quantitative orderliness in the panel-press and lever-box preparations. In the examination of archival records, questions about the enterprise of biographical understanding are considered.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barnes, T. C., & Skinner, B.F. (1930). The progressive increase in the geotropic response of the ant Aphaenogaster. Journal of General Psychology, 4, 102–112.
Bixenstine, V. E. (1964). Empiricism in latter-day behavioral science. Science, 145, 464–467.
Cannon, W. B. (1915). Bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear and rage. New York: Appleton.
Coleman, S. R. (1981). Historical context and systematic functions of the concept of the operant. Behaviorism, 9, 207–226.
Coleman, S. R. (1984). Background and change in B. F. Skinner’s metatheory from 1930 to 1938. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 5, 471–500.
Coleman, S. R. (1985). B. F. Skinner, 1926–1928: From literature to psychology. Behavior Analyst, 8, 77–92.
Crozier, W. J. (1928). Tropisms. Journal General Psychology, 1, 213–218.
Daniel, C., & Wood, F. S. (1971). Fitting equations to data. New York: Wiley-Interscience.
Ellson, D. G. (1939). The concept of reflex reserve. Psychological Review, 46, 566–575.
Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. (1957). Schedules of reinforcement. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Hall, A. R. (1956). The scientific revolution, 1500–1800: The formation of the modern scientific attitude (paperback ed.). Boston: Beacon. (Original work published 1954)
Hall, A. R. (1981). From Galileo to Newton (paperback ed.). New York: Dover. (Original work published 1963)
Jung, C. G. (1961). Memories, dreams, reflections (A. Jaffe, Ed.; R. & C. Winston, Trans.). New York: Vintage.
Köhler, W. (1925). The mentality of apes. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
Magnus, R. (1924). Körperstellung. Berlin: Springer.
Pavlov, I. P. (1960). Conditioned reflexes. New York: Dover. (Original work published 1927)
Richter, C. P. (1927). Animal behavior and internal drives. Quarterly Review of Biology, 2, 307–343.
Scharff, J. (1982). Skinner’s concept of the operant: From necessitarian to probabilistic causality. Behaviorism, 10, 45–54.
Sherrington, C. S. (1961). The integrative action of the nervous system (paperback ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. (Original work published 1906)
Sidman, M. (1960). Tactics of scientific research. New York: Basic.
Skinner, B. F. (1930). On the conditions of elicitation of certain eating reflexes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 16, 433–438.
Skinner, B. F. (1931). The concept of the reflex in the description of behavior. Journal of General Psychology, 5, 427–458.
Skinner, B.F. (1932a). Drive and reflex strength. Journal of General Psychology, 6, 22–37.
Skinner, B.F. (1932b). Drive and reflex strength. II. Journal of General Psychology, 6, 38–48.
Skinner, B. F. (1933a). The measurement of “spontaneous activity.” Journal of General Psychology, 9, 3–23.
Skinner, B.F. (1933b). The rate of establishment of a discrimination. Journal of General Psychology, 9, 302–350.
Skinner, B. F. (1935). Two types of conditioned reflex and a pseudo type. Journal of General Psychology, 12, 66–77.
Skinner, B.F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Skinner, B. F. (1939). The alliteration in Shakespeare’s sonnets: A study in literary behavior. Psychological Record, 3, 186–192.
Skinner, B. F. (1940). The nature of the operant reserve (Abstract). Psychological Bulletin, 37, 423.
Skinner, B. F. (1941). A quantitative estimate of certain types of sound-patterning in poetry. American Journal of Psychology, 54, 64–79.
Skinner, B. F. (1944). [A review of Hull’s Principles of Behavior]. American Journal of Psychology, 57, 276–281.
Skinner, B. F. (1950). Are theories of learning necessary? Psychological Review, 57, 193–216.
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan.
Skinner, B. F. (1956a). A case history in scientific method. American Psychologist, 11, 221–233.
Skinner, B.F. (1956b). Critique of psychoanalytic concepts and theories. In H. Feigl & M. Scriven (Eds.), Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science (Vol. 1, Studies in the philosophy of science and the concepts of psychology and psychoanalysis, (pp. 77–87). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Skinner, B. F. (1956c). [A review of Bush and Mosteller’s Stochastic Models for Learning.] Contemporary Psychology, 1, 101–103.
Skinner, B.F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Skinner, B. F. (1967). B. F. Skinner. In E. G. Boring & G. Lindzey (Eds.), A history of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 5, pp. 387–413). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism (Vintage paperback ed.). New York: Random.
Skinner, B. F. (1976). Particulars of my life. New York: Knopf.
Skinner, B.F. (1979). The shaping of a behaviorist. New York: Knopf.
Skinner, B. F. (1983). A matter of consequences. New York: Knopf.
Skinner, B. F. (1986). What is wrong with daily life in the Western world? American Psychologist, 41, 568–574.
Skinner, B. F., & Crozier, W.J. (1931). [AReview of Franklin Fearing, Reflex Action, A Study in the History of Physiological Psychology.] Journal of General Psychology, 5, 125–129.
Wang, G. H. (1923). The relation between “spontaneous” activity and oestrus cycle in the white rat. Comparative Psychology Monographs, 2. (Whole Number 6)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported through the Expense Grant Program of the College of Graduate Studies at Cleveland State University.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Coleman, S.R. Quantitative Order in B. F. Skinner’s Early Research Program, 1928–1931. BEHAV ANALYST 10, 47–65 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392406
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392406