Behaviorism explains behavior through observable relations between environmental stimuli and responses. When an action taken after a stimulus produces a reward and becomes more frequent, the behavior is reinforced. The approach makes outward performance central while setting aside thought, feelings, beliefs, and other internal processes. section 9.3.2
B. F. Skinner made this approach concrete through operant conditioning and experiments that restricted organisms to rats and behavior to button-pushing. Its experimental focus responded to earlier psychology’s difficult-to-test appeals to unconscious thought. But reducing behavior to what could be observed did not explain language acquisition, systematic reasoning errors, or creativity. section 9.3.2
The Skinner box
A rat presses a button and receives a reward; if the action becomes more frequent, the behavior has been reinforced. The setup illustrates both behaviorism’s predictive focus and its narrow view of what counts as behavior. section 9.3.2
In debates about AI, behaviorism’s blind spot is treating successful outward performance as enough to characterize intelligence. A pragmatic label such as “understanding” may be useful for a model that predicts well, without settling what intelligence is or what happens within the system. section 9.3.2 section 9.3.7
