'The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching' was first read at a conference at the University of Pittsburgh, in March, during which there was a demonstration of an experimental teaching machine. In addition to the question of comparative effectiveness researchers were also investigating the nature of the components of the teaching programme. There is an immediate test, usually a multiple-choice question, and the test result is used to determine the content of the next frame in the teaching sequence. With the new technology, which was to apply the newly emerging science of learning to the age-old art of teaching, one can see how B. F. Skinner drew parallels between his work with animals and the action of an ideal teaching environment. Skinner claimed that it was a great shock to turn from the exciting prospect of an advancing science of learning to that branch of technology which is most directly concerned with the learning process, education.