Generating Testable Ideas-Application 2
To do this application please find attached is a portion of an article written by B. F. Skinner in 1955. In the article, he describes his use of inductive and deductive reasoning to develop his ideas and test his hypotheses. In a paragraph, explain how the example given here illustrates inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, or both.
“The Art of Finding One Thing While Looking for Something Else”
“I found [in my earlier work] that . . . the rate of responding [on a lever press for food] . . . suggested a scheme for keeping a rat at a constant level of deprivation. The argument went like this: Suppose you reinforce the rat, not at the end of a given period, but when it has completed the number of responses ordinarily emitted in that period. And suppose you use substantial pellets of food and give the rat continuous access to the lever. Then, except for periods when the rat sleeps, it should operate the lever at a constant rate around the clock. For, whenever it grows slightly hungry, it will work faster, get food faster, and become less hungry, while whenever it grows slightly less hungry, it will respond at a lower rate, get less food, and grow hungrier. By setting the reinforcement at a given number of responses [on a lever press] it should even be possible to hold the rat at any given level of deprivation. I visualized a machine with a dial which one could set to make available, at any time of day or night, a rat in a given state of deprivation. Of course, [after setting up an experiment to test this argument, I found that] nothing of the sort happens. As soon as I found out it produces a very different type of performance, [I had to revise my initial argument].” (pp. 226–227)
Source: Skinner, B. F. (1955). A case history in the scientific method. The American Psychologist, 11, 221–233.
required reading the required reading is from the book: Privitera, G. J. (2018). Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences. I included power point of chapter 2 to be read for this assignment.
