Instrumental Conditioning

The foundations were laid by Edward Thorndike, whose Law of Effect (1898) proposed that behaviors producing satisfying outcomes tend to recur while those producing discomfort fade. B.F. Skinner refined the theory in his 1938 book The Behavior of Organisms, replacing Thorndike's mentalistic language with the observable terms reinforcement and punishment, and inventing the "Skinner Box" — an isolated chamber where behavioral responses could be rigorously measured and controlled.