B.F. Skinner

B.F. Skinner was the most influential behaviorist, building the program around operant conditioning.

Why?

He pushed the view that behavior is fully explained by its consequences, with no appeal to inner mental states.

• Operant conditioning: behavior shaped by reinforcement and punishment
• Skinner box, pigeons pecking keys, variable-ratio schedules
• Treated “thinking” and “feeling” as more behavior, not hidden causes
• Chomsky’s 1959 review of Verbal Behavior marks the Cognitive Revolution’s pushback