Opening Skinner's Box Microblogs

Reference Information
   Title -  Opening Skinner's Box
    Author- Lauren Slater


Chapter 1


Summary
     In the first chapter of "opening Skinner's Box" Lauren Slater begins discussing B. F. Skinner. Skinner is a neo-behaviorist who had become very famous. Slater goes into his home to get more information on him. the author even talks to his family to obtain more knowledge on Skinner because he put together theory on ope-rant condition.


Discussion
      I enjoyed reading the first chapter of "Opening Skinner's Box" by Lauren Slater. I had never heard of Skinner or his work before reading and it definitely sparked my interest in his subject.  I found it strange that his mother had never spent a ton of time with him, but she still came out and said that it wrong just wrong and cruel to keep him in this "baby box"


Chapter 2


Summary
      The Milgram Experiment, done by Stanley Milgram was the main focus of this chapter. This study was done by him centered around relationship between obedience and authority. His main influence was the Nazi Holocaust. The author goes on to talk to people that were involved in this study, including his wife. The experiment's goal was to test the willingness of someone to do something asked of them that was against their personal conscience.


Discussion
     I found this chapter very interesting. I hadn't heard much of this experiment so I was curious what it was all about. It makes me wonder how I would have reacted in the same situation. I can say something now, but what I do may be completely different when I am in the situation.


Chapter 3


Summary
    In chapter 3 David Rosenhan's experiment in the 1970s was discussed. He wanted to test if psychiatrist could tell if a patient was actually mentally insane or not. He admitted several volunteers into mental hospitals claiming they were hearing a "thud". He was diagnosed with  paranoid schizophrenia, even though he told his doctor is was just fine. He was randomly realised several days later. 


Discussion
    This chapter was very odd to me. I don't agree with the idea of Rosenhan claiming the psychiatric practice as a failure. The admittance and release policies of certain medical hospitals may not be adequate but there is no reason to call the whole practice bogus.  I feel that his experiment was incorrectly put together and could use several improvements. 


Chapter 4


Summary
     This idea discussed in this chapter is the human response to emergency. The experiment done involved being able to hear a person in the next room having a seizure and seeing if the person would respond. 30% responded quickly when a large crowd was present vs 80% when they were alone.


Discussion
    This experiment was interesting to read about. I can't imagine not helping out a person in an emergency situation like this. I feel strongly about this, but the situation may bring a different response. Its hard for me to tell because I have never really been in a situation like this before. The authors discussed many people don't respond well to repsonsiblity in larger groups. 


Chapter 5


Summary
     The author of this chapter uses Cognitive dissonance as the main topic. Slater discusses the topic of Festinger's experiments. Cognitive dissonance deals with people altering their own beliefs based on information given to them from somebody else. The people in the experiment completed tasks and then told other people the opposite of how they felt about this task. Often, the listeners opinion would change about the task based on what was said to them. 


Discussion
   I really enjoyed reading this chapter about Cognitive Dissonance. I had never read much about this topic but it makes sense now that I have had some time to read over it. This kind of stuff happens all the time, especially dealing  with technology.

Chapter 6

Summary
  This chapter was centered around Harry Harlow and his experiment with monkeys. The concept behind this experiment was to test isolation and maternal separation. The experiment tested a feeding machine against a surrogate mother to see which was preferred. Originally, he said that the surrogate was good enough but goes on to find abnormal behavior in the young monkeys that used it.

Discussion
  I enjoyed reading about these experiments with the feeding machine vs the surrogate. I also liked the fact that  Harlow came out and said that he was initially wrong about his findings but continues to watch for abnormal behavior. Eventually, proving his originally theory wrong was pretty cool to read about.

Chapter 7

Summary
     In this chapter, the author discussed Bruce Alexander and his research dealing with rats. He divided up 32 rats evenly into a "rat park" and a cage. Also, placed in both cages were 2 quantities of water. One of which was pure water and the other was laced with drugs. Based on the authors research, the rats in the more brightly colored "park" seemed less resistant to the drugs. On the other hand, the rats in the dark cages seemed to favor them.


Discussion
     I thought this experiment was a little less cruel than the previous on dealing with monkeys. It was interesting to look at the effects on both subjects of rat populations. Its hard to say how this experiment is realistic though because the rats would never live in such a nice environment such as the "rat park"

Chapter 8

Summary
    The main focus of the chapter is memory manipulation and false memories. Basically the experiment has subjects who read of memories from families. They were given 3 real memories and 1 false one. Only about 1/4 of these participants were able to recollect the false memories.

Discussion
   I thought this chapter was interesting to read. I think more than manipulating memories, people tend to forget events they choose not to remember. Also, I think there could be a whole separate experiment done on traumatic events and their effect on the brain.

Chapter 9

Summary
       This chapter discusses memory and the brains ability to hold it. The chapter discusses the research done by Kandel. He discoverers that memory is formed using an electrochemical in the brain and hopes that someday a drug can be produced to enhance the brains ability to create them

Discussion
     I really enjoyed reading this chapter about memory and the human brain. It  is nice that it goes along very well with the chapter before. I have always been interested in the human brain and how it works.