“Crying babies are the source of great frustration for adults, particularly for their parents. Because they cannot speak, infants cry as their primary means of communication and they do it with great frequency. Babies cry as a means to communicate that they are in pain, unhappy, tired, hungry or generally in need of attention. Sometimes […]
Tag: Skinner
They trained chickens to play baseball, and then some
Psychologist B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning work inspired the work of Marian Breland Bailey. Bailey’s work inspired this study: “Marian Breland Bailey: The Mouse Who Reinforced,” John N. Marr, Arkansas Historical Quarterly. Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring, 2002), pp. 59-79. Marr writes: Marian and her first husband, Keller Breland, had become the most experienced and accomplished […]
Pop psychology: Skinner and Redenbacher
Two psychology tidbits, both involving Skinner and Redenbacher: First: Robin Abrahams, our psychology editor, notes that behaviorism psychologist B.F. Skinner and popcorn magnate Orville Redenbacher resembled each other [see photos here]. [NOTE: Can pigeons can be trained to distinguish photographs of one from photographs of the other? The experiment has not yet been done.] Second: A […]