B. F. Skinner

What did Skinner propose about how children learn to speak?

Children learn to speak by imitating adults and receiving positive or negative reinforcement based on the accuracy of their utterances.

Who was B. F. Skinner?

An American psychologist and leading behaviourist who believed language is learned through imitation and reinforcement.

What is positive reinforcement in Skinner’s theory?

A rewarding response that encourages a child to repeat a correct or desired utterance.

What is negative reinforcement in Skinner’s theory?

A discouraging response that makes the child less likely to repeat an incorrect or undesired utterance.

Which earlier psychologist influenced Skinner’s behaviourist ideas?

John B. Watson, who used animal models to study learned behaviour.

What does the behaviourist concept of the mind as a ‘tabula rasa’ mean?

The mind is a blank slate at birth, and all knowledge—including language—comes from experience and interaction.

What is operant conditioning?

A process where behaviour (including language) is shaped by the consequences it produces—rewards or punishments.

How did Skinner demonstrate operant conditioning?

Through animal experiments, such as a cat in a puzzle box learning to escape faster after repeated trials.

Why did Skinner believe humans can learn language through conditioning unlike animals?

Humans have cognitive abilities that allow them to use and be shaped by language, whereas animals can only imitate behaviour, not communicate instructions.

Why did Skinner think language learning must involve reinforcement?

He argued human behaviour is too complex to be learned without verbal guidance and feedback from others.

How did Chomsky criticise Skinner’s behaviourist explanation?

Chomsky argued there is no empirical evidence that environmental feedback is responsible for language acquisition.

Why is Skinner’s theory seen as overly simplistic today?

It cannot account for children producing novel sentences or innate grammatical understanding, which supports nativist theories instead.

What does Skinner’s reinforcement model suggest about language mistakes?

Children learn quickly from utterances that receive positive reinforcement and avoid repeating those that lead to negative responses.

How do nurture and experience feature in Skinner’s theory?

All language knowledge comes from interacting with the environment; nothing about grammar or language structures is innate.