Like the wardens in Everquest 2 or the druids in World of Warcraft, reinforcement in MMOs is not always what it appears to be. In an earlier column we wrote about how positive reinforcement, as ...

When it came to figuring out the basis for motivation, one of the field's earliest psychologists had it right. B.F. Skinner wasn’t the first psychologist to study the effect of rewards on behavior.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! You have just slain the Black Dragon of Towmak and have discovered an epic treasure! DING! You have just reached level 24! KA-BOOM! You successfully destroyed your objective and ...

B.F. Skinner is a creature of carefully shaped habit. At the age of 83, he has fashioned a schedule and environment for himself that is in perfect keeping with his theories of behavioral reinforcement ...

The concept of “reinforcement” has a long history in psychology. Pavlov used the term reinforcement to explain the strengthening of the association between the sound of a bell and the production of ...

The bird has never gotten much credit for being intelligent. But the reinforcement learning powering the world’s most advanced AI systems is far more pigeon than human. In 1943, while the world’s ...

Skinner, B. F., The Behavior of Organisms (Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1938); Ferster, C. B., and Skinner, B. F., Schedules of Reinforcement (Appleton-Century ...