Introduction to the Special Section

Abstract

The present Special Section is based on a symposium held at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for Behavior Analysis, titled “The beginning of the study of operant conditioning in Japan: Two sets of the experimental apparatus sent from Skinner’s Lab. in early 1950’s”. In terms of a historical view of the study of operant conditioning in Japan in particular, as well as the history of scientific methods in general, it is very important to see how these apparatuses were introduced to Keio University and the University of Tokyo. To this end, we interviewed people who had worked with these Skinner boxes, and listed in a chronological table events that had occurred at both universities. The present Special Section includes an introduction to the chronological table, an interview with Hideo Hirasawa, who is one of the people listed in the table, and a description of how the apparatus for pigeons was used at Keio University, as well as how these Skinner boxes were introduced and developed in Japan. In addition, comments by Dr. Tadasu Oyama, former professor of the University of Tokyo, and a review of studies of operant conditioning in Japan published from the 1940s to the present are included. These articles reveal how Skinner boxes were introduced and developed in Japan, even though some aspects of events that are included in the chronological table are unknown.