Skinner Teaching Machine
date: label: Date made
content: 1957
name: label: maker
content: Skinner, B. F.
notes: label: Description
content: From the 1920s, psychologists have explored ways to automate teaching. In the 1950s, the psychologist B. F. Skinner of Harvard University suggested that techniques he had developed for training rats and pigeons might be adopted for teaching humans. He used this apparatus teaching a Harvard course in natural sciences.
label: Description
content: The machine is a rectangular wooden box with a hinged metal lid with windows. Various paper discs fit inside, with questions and answers written along radii of the discs. One question at a time appears in the window nearer the center. The student writes an answer on a paper tape to the right and advances the mechanism. This reveals the correct answer but covers his answer so that it may not be changed.
label: Description
content: Skinner's "programmed learning" was refined and adopted in many classrooms in the 1960s. It underlies techniques still used in instruction for the office, the home and the school.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
topic: label: Subject
content: Psychology
label: Subject
content: Education
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Teaching Machines
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content: Sputnik
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of B. F. Skinner
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335539
label: accession number
content: 318945
label: catalog number
content: 335539
objectType: label: Object Name
content: teaching machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 17.5 cm x 48.6 cm x 37 cm; 6 7/8 in x 19 1/8 in x 14 9/16 in