Walden's greatest scientific mind, Dr. Leonard Abrat travelled extensively in his youth. Even though he spent the majority of his time absorbed in his studies, Leonard quickly gained a reputation across the continent as one of the great partiers of the academic community. He often shouted out his nickname as he entered a room, exclaiming "HERE COMES THE LAD RAT!!"

While working in the London Underground he was caught up in a scandal involving a young ferret from the countryside nobility. Forced to leave both his young love and his career behind him, Leonard emigrated to Walden Three.

Now Dr. L. Abrat is the head of the Research Lab located in the centre of Walden Three. He works closely with his assistant, the ravishingly beautiful Marilyn Manrodent.

Kingdom Animalia, Phylum; Chordata,

The Class is Aves, 'cause wings, they got 'em,

Order is Columbiformes, Family; Columbidae,

The Genus is Columba, but they know where they're goin',

'They are in a species, known as Livia,

guiding missiles, even to Bolivia.

The conditioning process is usually obvious. The bird happens to be executing some response as the hopper appears; as a result it tends to repeat this response. If the interval before the next presentation is not so great that extinction takes place, a second 'contingency' is probable. This strengthens the response still further and subsequent reinforcement becomes more probable. It is true that some responses go unreinforced and [p.169] some reinforcements appear when the response has not just been made, but the net result is the development of a considerable state of strength.

Report on Superstitious Pigeons:

Bird 1 -- made counter clockwise turns in the cage, made two to three turns between reinforcements.

Bird 2 -- thrust its head into one of the upper corners of the cage.

Bird 3 -- Tossing response as if placing its head beneath an invisible bar and tossing it up.

Birds 4 and 5 -- pendulum motion of their heads and body -- head was extended forward and swung from right to left with a sharp movement followed by a somewhat slower return.

Bird 6 -- brushing movements directed toward but not touching the floor.

F. NONE of these behaviors had been observed in the birds prior to the conditioning procedure.

The operant conditioning chamber or "Skinner box" is a piece of lab equipment invented by B.F. Skinner and used to study the effects of behavior conditioning on lab animals. The subject is rewarded when it correctly performs a particular behavior; usually it is given food when it pushes a button.

The basic structure of the box is highly adaptable and has been used to carry out various experiments under differing conditions. Such experiments have involved using two or more levers, two or more feeders and devices that apply an additional stimulus to the test subject, like a jukebox that plays music as a reward.

The aircrib is an invention of B.F. Skinner and is used to raise children. Designed in the 1950's it offers a number of improvements over the traditional cot. The aircrib maintains a perfectly comfortable temperature for the child and allows carers to get them to stick to strict meal times. In Walden Two children are left in their aircribs to "cry it out" as was it was a popular parenting technique in Skinners time.

The children take their first steps into a fully behaviourist education at the nursery. Here the older children are taught how to manage their own intake of food before they join the adults in the communal dining rooms at age seven. Each child is taught to only eat at certain times as in Walden Three all meal times are staggered to make the task of feeding the entire populace easier and more efficient.

Skinner felt that the variable rates of learning for individual students caused problems in the classroom environment. He thought that students were not given enough individual attention to cater to their ability. Because a 1:1 ratio of tutors to pupils was unrealistic, he developed the Teaching Machine to teach students in a step-by-step process with gradual positive reinforcement based on their progress.

The Skinner Teaching Machine is used in the classroom. The machine consists of a programme that gradually brings a student through the learning material. The pupil will complete a 'fill-in-the-blanks' mechanism, and will receive some positive reinforcement for correct answers. If they are incorrect, the student will study the correct answer to increase the chance of being correct the next time.

Click here in order to take a test on this teaching machine about Walden Three and behaviourism.

Planners wield a lot of power within Walden Three. Democracy is not important here and the ordinary members of society aren't given the opportunity to make political decisions. Planners are not however a ruling class, they have the same rights as everyone else.

Labour is just one of six departments here in Walden Three's planning office. The other five include Food, Health, Science, Arts and Education. Each department is run by a planner and together they form the decision making class of Walden Three. Planners choose their own replacements and can stay in their position for up to ten years.