Who first investigated operant or instrumental conditioning using specially built chambers?
AEdward Tolman in his maze studies on latent learning
BIvan P. Pavlov in his salivation studies
CB.F. Skinner in his rat and pigeon studies
DWolfgang Köhler in his chimpanzee insight studies
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. B.F. Skinner in his rat and pigeon studies
1. The chapter opens the operant section by naming the researcher who first investigated it.
2. That researcher is B.F. Skinner.
3. Skinner studied voluntary responses by which an organism operates on its environment.
4. He called such responses operants, and conditioning of them is operant conditioning.
5. The chamber Skinner used is named after him as the Skinner Box.
6. Hence operant conditioning is associated with B.F. Skinner.
_Source: NCERT Class 11 Psychology Ch 5 "Learning", p. 81, Operant/Instrumental Conditioning_
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