Eunice Framm, senior keeper of barnyard animals at the Cincinnati Zoo, has taught pigs to bowl, goats to paint, and red pandas to receive vaccines. She, and all other keepers, do so through the zoo’s ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American While second nature to many of us, driving a ...

Operant conditioning is a procedure for controlling behavior, explored and exploited most notably by B. F. Skinner, followed by many subsequent researchers. It involves shaping the behavior of an ...

Operant conditioning is B.F. Skinner’s name for instrumental learning: learning by consequences. Not a new idea, of course. Humanity has always known how to teach children and animals by means of ...