Early Teaching Machine of B. F. Skinner
date: label: date made
content: 1954
name: label: maker
content: Skinner, B. F.
notes: label: Description
content: In the years following World War II, American school enrollments boomed. One parent, the psychologist and Harvard University faculty member B. F. Skinner, noted that students might benefit from machines that gave extra opportunities for drill. Skinner designed this instrument to teach elementary arithmetic.
label: Description
content: The wooden box has a black plastic knob in front. The hinged lid extends over the middle of the top, and covers a punched paper tape. A window in this lid reveals one problem at a time. In front of the window is a set of six levers that allows one to set a number in a hole, to answer a question.
label: Description
content: A mark on the lid of the machine reads: TEACHING MACHINE EXHIBITED IN MARCH, 1954 (/) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH [/] CONFERENCE ON “PSYCHOLOGY AND THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES”.
label: Description
content: Compare to other Skinner teaching machines, 1984.1069.01 and MA.335539.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Alexander Rutherford, <i>Beyond the Box: B. F. Skinner’s Technology of Behavior from Laboratory to Life, 1950s–1970s</I>, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009, esp. pp. 26-33.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Psychology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Teaching Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Arithmetic Teaching
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: 1981.0997.01
label: accession number
content: 1981.0997
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0997.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: teaching machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (box material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (tape material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (knob material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (mechanism material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15.3 cm x 33 cm x 33.5 cm; 6 1/32 in x 13 in x 13 3/16 in