The theoretical foundation of behaviorism was developed by Pavlov (1960, p. 38), who, through his studies on the salivary responses of dogs to food, discovered the phenomenon of the ôconditioned reflex.ö By using a stimuli just before food was served to the dogs, Pavlov discovered that, over time, the dogs salivated just as much from the stimuli even when food was not present. He labeled this form of learning, ôconditioning,ö (Pavlov, 1960, p. 68).
B. F. Skinner furthered PavlovÆs theories of operant conditioning in order to ôcontrol, predict, and interpret behavior,ö (Holland, 1992, p. 665). Skinner learned that through rewards or punishment, behavior could be modified. Behavior modification works on the premise that if you reward behaviors in children it will increase the frequency of those, desirable, behaviors. Those behaviors that are ôundesirableö can, through adverse consequences or punishment being applied each time they are observed, can be made extinct. For example, if a child sucks her thumb, the desired behavior is not sucking her thumb. Her parents or caregivers observe her behavior and when she goes for a few hours or an entire day without sucking her thumb, she is praised, given candy or something else pleasant, or some other form of control. This will reinforce the ôdesiredö behavior and diminish the frequency of the ôundesirableö (in this case thumb-sucking) behavior. However, to be effective, rewards must be given periodically or they will lose their impact to shape behavior. Slot machines work on this premise by having periodic pay-offs. If they paid off all the time people would not put more money in them, the desired behavior. If they never paid off people would stop putting money in them, the opposite of the desired behavior. But when they pay off every so often, it acts as a reward that increases the frequency of the desired behavior, putting more money in the machine. One c
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