Full Blog: Opening Skinner's Box

Reference Information

   Title: Opening Skinner's Box

   Author: Lauren Slater

   Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company (2008)

Summary

There are many chapters, all unrelated in Opening Skinner's Box. In chapter one, Slater discusses B.F. Skinner and his work studying reinforcement schedules. He studied frog reflexes and learned to train his dogs to play hide-and-seek. He concluded that there was no such thing as free will.

In chapter two, Slater talks about Milgram's shock experiments. Milgram wanted to see whether people if faced with an authority telling them to hurt someone, would do it. It was found that 62-65% of people would follow orders. The implications of this, especially following World War II were extremely controversial.

Chapter three is about David Rosenhan's experiment with psych hospitals. He and eight others got admitted by saying they heard a "thud". Once they were there however, they acted normal. Many of them were labeled as paranoid schizophrenics. Conversely, he also told doctors that they would be sending "fake" patients to different psych hospitals. He wanted to see if they diagnosed people differently, which they did. Rosenhan didn't send any fakes.

Chapter four discusses the bystander effect in Kitty Genovese's murder. For reasons that make me sick, I don't want to describe the case. Blegh. Chapter five looked at Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance. Much of this chapter was about Linda Santo's who claimed to be a saint that God sent to take the pain of others.

Chapter six was about Harry Harlow and his research with monkeys. He explored the psychology of attachment. He found that monkeys were more attached to fake monkey shaped rags than to something that wasn't soft but provided essentials. Harlow tried to "create" a normal monkey with motion, touch and social.

Chapter seven was about Bruce Alexander's rat park. He found that rats in a utopian setting chose morphine-laced water far less than those in cramped cages.

Chapter eight focuses on false memory experimentes conducted by Elizabeth Loftus. She found that she was able to implant memories into her subjects using the "Lost in the mall" story. She observed how their stories even changed over time, many times becoming more elaborate. Chapter ten is similar to eight. Slater discusses psychosurgery performed by Antonio Moniz.

Chapter nine features Kandel's research with memory. He discovered that neurons grew stronger when an electrochemical signal reinforced the relationship. This was known as the CREB and CREB repressor. He focuses his time nowadays to create CREB  enhancers. CREB is a molecule that produces protein to make memories.

Discussion

Opening Skinner's Box was an extremely fascinating read. I loved just about every chapter. I had heard of many of these experiments before, but not in this much detail. The experiments  that Milgram and Rosenhan did I found most fascinating. The societal implications that each hold are astounding.