n discuss decisions of the individuals being taught in order to provide guidance through feedback assessment. This approach to learning has been described as "a period of observation leading to understanding. By observing the problem for a while and thinking about it, the subject is able to solve it" (Poffenberger, 1987, pp. 252-253).
Learning style is an individual behavior. Skinner (1953, p. 87) held that it is necessary to look outside of an organism for an explanation of its behavior. Following through with this premise, Skinner concluded that it was possible, through the manipulation of variables external to an organism, to both predict and modify its behavior. The principal means by which such manipulation is accomplished is reinforcement. Reinforcement may be either positive or negative.
Skinner (1953, p. 94) viewed the causal chain of behavior as a three-link process. The first link was an operation performed on an organism from without, while the second link was an inner psychological condition. The third link was a specific behavior. While complete, accurate, and independent information concerning the second link·an inner psychological condition·would permit prediction of the third link·behavior·without recourse to the first link·an external event affecting an organism, such information simply is not available. Thus, in the management of behavior, which includes the learning process, it is necessary to emphasize the relationship between the first and third links·actions on an organism from without, and the organism's response behaviors.
In acting on an organism from without, Skinner (1974, p. 127) theorized that the reinforcement actions could, as indicated above, be either positive or negative. Thus, depending upon the situation and upon the desired behavior, an appropriate stimulus might be either the introduction of a factor into an organism's environment·a positive reinforcement, or the withdraw...