B. F. Skinner was a college English major and aspiring writer, who, seeking a new direction, entered psychology graduate school. He went on to become modern behaviorism's most influen- tial and controversial figure.
Skinner's work elaborated Edward Thorndike's law of effect, which states that rewarded behav- ior is likely to recur. Using this as his starting point, Skinner developed a behavioral technology that
revealed principles of behavior control. He explored the principles and conditions of learning through operant conditioning, in which behavior operates on the environment to produce reward- ing or punishing stimuli. Skinner used an operant chamber (Skinner box) in his pioneering studies of reinforcement with rats and pigeons.
In his experiments, Skinner used shaping, a procedure in which reinforcers, such as food, guide an animal's natural behavior toward a desired behavior. By rewarding
responses that are ever closer to the final desired behavior (successive approximations), and ignoring all other responses, researchers can gradually shape complex behaviors. Because nonverbal animals and babies can respond only to what they perceive, their reactions demonstrate which events they can discrimi- nate.
Skinner has been criticized for repeatedly insisting that external influences, not internal thoughts and feelings, shape behavior and for urging
the use of operant principles to control people's
behavior. Critics argue that he dehumanized people by neglecting their personal freedom and by seeking to control their actions. Skinner countered: People's behavior is already controlled by external reinforcers, so why not administer those consequences for human betterment?
Operant principles have been applied in a variety of settings. For example, in schools, web-based learning, online testing systems, and interactive student software
embody the operant ideal of individualized shaping and immediate reinforcement. In sports, performance is enhanced by first reinforcing small successes and then gradually increasing the challenge. In the workplace, positive reinforcement for jobs well done has boosted employee productivity. At home, parents can reward their children's desirable behaviors and not reward those that are undesirable. To reach our per- sonal goals, we can monitor and reinforce our own desired behaviors and cut back
on incentives as the behaviors become habitual.
Prosocial models have prosocial effects. People who show nonviolent, helpful behavior prompt similar behavior in others. Models are most effective when their actions and words are consistent. Exposed to a hypocrite, children tend to imitate the hypocrisy by doing what the model does and saying what the model says.
Research indicates that much violence shown on television goes unpunished, is portrayed as
justi- fied, and involves an attractive perpetrator. These conditions provide a recipe for a violence- viewing effect. However, correlational studies that link viewing violence with violent behavior do not indicate the direction of influence. Those who behave violently may enjoy watching violence on TV, or some third factor may cause observers both to behave violently and to prefer watching violent programs. To establish cause and effect, researchers have designed experiments in which
some
participants view violence and others do not. Later, given an opportunity to express violence, the people who viewed violence tend to be more aggressive and less sympathetic. In addition to imitating what they see, observers may become desensitized to brutality, whether on TV or in real life.
In some ways, our memory is like a computer's information-processing system. Information must be encoded, stored, and retrieved. The Atkinson-Shiffrin three-stage model
states that we first record to-be-remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory, from which it is processed into short-term memory, where we encode it through rehearsal for long-term memory and later retrieval. Unlike a computer, we process information simultaneously, called parallel processing. One model, connectionism, views memories as products of interconnected neural networks. Alan Baddeley and other memory researchers prefer the term working memory to short-term memory because it
emphasizes a more active role in the second processing stage in which information
is rehearsed, new stimuli are associated with existing memories, and problems are solved. The working-memory model includes the processing of incoming visual-spatial and auditory informa- tion with a central executive that focuses attention and pulls information from long-term memory to help make sense of new information.
When we organize information into meaningful units, we
recall it more easily. In chunking, we cluster information into familiar, manageable units, such as words into sentences. Chunking occurs so naturally that we often take it for granted.
To help them encode lengthy passages and speeches, ancient Greek scholars and orators also developed mnemonics. Many of these memory aids use vivid imagery, because we are particularly good at remembering mental pictures. We remember concrete words that lend themselves to pic- ture images better than we
remember abstract, low-imagery words because, for example, we can associate both an image and a meaning with fire but only a meaning with process. In the peg-word system, people remember new items by using a visual code as well as an acoustic code.
When people develop expertise in an area, they often process information in hierarchies composed of a few broad concepts divided and subdivided into lesser concepts and facts. In this way, experts can retrieve information efficiently.
We retain
information better when our encoding is distributed over time, called the spacing effect. One effective way to distribute practice is repeated self-testing, a phenomenon called the testing effect.
Memories are held in storage by a web of associations. Retrieval cues enable you to follow the path to the memory. For example, to retrieve a specific memory, we need to identify one of the strands that leads to it, a process called priming. Activating retrieval
cues within our web of asso- ciations aids memory. Such activation may occur without our awareness and may also influence behaviors.
Putting yourself back in the context where you experienced something can prime your memory retrieval. By contrast, experiencing something outside the usual setting can be confusing. The encoding specificity principle helps us understand how cues specific to an event or person will most effectively trigger that memory.
Closely related to context-dependent
memory is state-dependent memory, the tendency to recall information best in the same state as when the information was learned. Memories are somewhat mood-congruent. While in a good or bad mood, we often retrieve memories consistent with that mood. For example, research suggests that currently depressed people have recalled their parents as rejecting, punitive, and guilt-promoting, whereas formerly depressed people's recollections
As a socially constructed
concept, intelligence varies from culture to culture. Thus, most psy- chologists now define intelligence as the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
Psychologists agree that people have specific abilities, such as verbal and mathematical aptitudes. However, they debate whether a general intelligence (g) factor runs through them all, as proposed by Charles Spearman. Factor analysis has identified several clusters of mental abilities.
Still, there seems to be a tendency for those who excel in one of the clusters to score well on others, as sug- gested by the results of L. L. Thurstone's ranking of people's primary mental abilities. Satoshi Kanazawa argues that general intelligence helps people solve novel problems, while more com- mon problems reaquire a different sort of intelligence.
Evidence that brain damage may diminish one ability but not others, as well as studies of savant
syndrome, led Howard Gardner to propose his theory of multiple intelligences. These include lin- guistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Gardner has also proposed a ninth possible intelligence—existential intelligence. Robert Sternberg also proposes a triarchic theory of multiple intelligences in which he distinguishes among analytical (academic problem solving), practical, and creative intelligences.
Critics note that
there is a general intelligence factor that predicts performance on various complex tasks. They also note that intelligence is not enough. Success is a combination of talent with grit. K. Anders Ericsson notes a 10-year rule for success.