Birth of Behaviorism: Pavlov and Skinner

Sometimes psychology feels like it’s full of abstract stuff about the “mind.” But behaviorism came along and said: forget what’s inside your head, just watch what you do. Simple, right? That’s why I like it. It’s basically about poking the environment and seeing how people (or dogs, or mice) react.

Here’s my quick dive into the two legends who kicked this whole thing off: Pavlov and Skinner.

What is behaviorism in psychology?

Behaviorism is all about observable behaviors. Basically, how we act when the environment pokes at us.

Pavlov’s Dogs

Pavlov wanted to see how animals learn by association. His famous dog experiment showed that if you keep pairing a stimulus with food, the dog will start drooling even without the food.

He introduced four key ideas:

1. Unconditioned stimulus: something that naturally triggers a response (like food).
2. Unconditioned response: the natural reaction (dog drools).
3. Conditioned stimulus: something neutral that gets linked to the unconditioned stimulus (bell).
4. Conditioned response: the learned reaction to the once-neutral stimulus (dog drools at the bell).

So yeah—ring bell → no food yet → dog still drools. This kind of proved that a stimulus association can be learned by the subject.

Skinner’s Mice in a Box 🐭

Skinner zoomed out a bit. Instead of just pairing things, he studied how behavior changes depending on conditions. His “Skinner box” experiments led to operant conditioning, which works through four rules:

1. Positive reinforcement: do something, get a reward → behavior increases.
2. Negative reinforcement: do something, avoid something bad → behavior increases.
3. Punishment: do something, get something bad → behavior decreases.
4. Extinction: do something, nothing happens → behavior fades out.

Put simply —

• press lever → get food → mouse keeps pressing (positive reinforcement)
• press lever → avoid shock → mouse keeps pressing (negative reinforcement)
• press lever → get shock → mouse stops pressing (punishment)
• press lever → nothing happens → mouse eventually gives up (extinction)

Schedules of reinforcement

Skinner didn’t stop at just the types of conditioning. He also looked at the timing of rewards and punishments. Turns out, when you give a reward can be just as powerful as the reward itself.

There are two main ways to schedule reinforcement:

• Continuous reinforcement: reward every single time the behavior happens. Great for teaching new behaviors, but it fades fast if the reward stops.
• Partial reinforcement: reward only sometimes. This one sticks better long-term because the subject keeps trying, not knowing exactly when the reward will come.

Partial reinforcement types

Skinner broke partial reinforcement down even further:

1. Fixed-ratio: reward after a set number of actions (like every 5 lever presses).
2. Variable-ratio: reward after a changing number of actions (like slot machines).
3. Fixed-interval: reward after a set amount of time (like a weekly paycheck).
4. Variable-interval: reward after changing time intervals (like checking your inbox and finding random emails).

What this showed was

• fixed-ratio → work 5 times → always get reward (steady and predictable).
• variable-ratio → keep trying → reward shows up randomly (super addictive).
• fixed-interval → wait for timer → get reward on schedule (burst of activity near the end).
• variable-interval → keep checking → reward drops in unexpectedly (slow but steady).

Reflection

Behaviorism isn’t the cool kid anymore in psychology, but its ideas are still everywhere. For me, it feels super relevant in UX and design. Guiding users through an app, nudging them toward certain actions, discouraging others. This is basically Pavlov and Skinner in disguise.

Think about video games, app forms, or even how we design workflows: it’s all about shaping behavior. Or in simpler words: controlling the narrative of the user.

And hey, if a dog can learn to drool on cue, maybe we can learn to click that “submit” button a little faster too.