The Other Shoe: An Early Operant Conditioning Chamber for Pigeons.
We describe an early operant conditioning chamber fabricated by Harvard University instrument maker Ralph Gerbrands and shipped to Japan in 1952 in response to a request of Professor B. F. Skinner by Japanese psychologists. It is a rare example, perhaps the earliest still physically existing, of such a chamber for use with pigeons. Although the overall structure and many of the components are similar to contemporary pigeon chambers, several differences are noted and contrasted to evolutionary changes in this most important laboratory tool in the experimental analysis of behavior. The chamber also is testimony to the early internationalization of behavior analysis.
Department of Psychology, Keio University, 2-15-45 Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8345 Japan.
Takayuki
T
Sakagami
Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6040 USA.
Kennon A
0000-0001-5422-944X
KA
Lattal
B.F. Skinner; Early pigeon chamber; Japanese psychologists; Research apparatus; Technology and scientific change