ABSTRACT
The Behaviourist movement was determined to make psychology more scientific and credible so Skinner introduced the concepts of rewards and punishments as these were more tangible than concepts like pleasure. A movement called ‘Behaviourism’ in psychology believed that all organisms learn in the same ways. Therefore, a wide range of species were used to test out their ideas from pigeons to cats to rats and dogs. By understanding how a dog learns it can be seen that this is a more clear-cut process than one which involves “whispering”. A dog owner can happily talk to their dog to tell them they have done something good like “shake a paw” or “good dog” for sitting in their dog bed. Dogs are social species and attention can be a powerful reinforcer of behaviour. Burrhus F. Skinner took Thorndike’s ideas to a wider audience by introducing a series of terms that are still used to explain how operant conditioning works.
