B.F. Skinner is an American behavioral psychologist who contributed to psychology through his discovery and definition of operant conditioning. After years of attempting to be a full-time writer, Skinner was inspired by John Watson’s Behaviorism to pursue experimental psychology. Thinking classical conditioning was simply too basic, Skinner observed the behaviors of rats with differing stimuli in a contraption he devised called the “Skinner Box”. In this, Skinner concluded that the rat’s behavior depended on the consequences of interacting with stimuli which could either reinforce or decrease future actions.