Burrhus Frederic Skinner, better known as BF, was born on March 20, 1904. Skinner knew psychology was for him when he read some books by Isaac Pavlov and John B. Watson, and became enrolled at Harvard University. He also introduced some new ideas to psychology. Skinner's psychological experiments, although most were conducted on animals, changed the way people study psychology today. Operant conditioning began with B.F. Skinner. However, Skinner's operant conditioning derives from Edward Thorndike's law of effect theory, which states that "behavior is determined by the consequences associated with good or bad behavior." Skinner associated the term reinforcement with operant conditioning because he believed that reinforcement would strengthen a behavior. (McLeod, 2007) Skinner developed this theory through his various experiments with animals. One of Skinner's famous experiments that tested his theory of operant conditioning was the Skinner box. He used this box to record the times the mouse pressed the lever, but the mouse did not automatically press the lever. To model the rat's behavior, Skinner had to use food as a positive reinforcer to encourage the rat to press the lever. Finally, Skinner added a shock to see how the mouse would behave. The rats soon learned that if they pressed the lever the shock would not be delivered. (McLeod) This type of experiment performed by Skinner is called negative reinforcement. It's called negative reinforcement because the shock is supposed to increase the chances that the rats will push the lever. Then, Skinner conducted another experiment to see if the rats could prevent the shock from occurring. In this experiment, Skinner warned the rats of the shock by turning on a light; although... half of the paper... math problem. Skinner's contribution to psychology changed the way people view development and also allowed his theories to be updated. Works Cited Fodor, JA; Bever, T.G.; & Garrett, M.F. (1975) The psychology of language: an introduction to psycholinguistics and generative grammar. New York: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved September 10, 2013, www3.niu.edu/acad/psy/Mills/History/2003/cogrev_skinner.htm.Greengrass, M. (2004). 100 Years of BF Skinner. American Psychological Association, 35(3),80. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar04/skinner.aspx.McLeod, S.A. (2007). BF Skinner-Operant conditioning. Simply psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html. Vargas, J. S. (2005). A short biography of BF Skinner. BF Skinner foundation. Retrieved from http://www.bfskinner.org/bfskinner/AboutSkinner.html.