What is a Skinner box and what is its purpose?

A Skinner box was a box created by B. F. Skinner to study operant conditioning. This box was a closed container with an animal inside and a bar or key that should be used by the animal so that it could manipulate, after a certain stimulus, and control the entry and exit of food and water inside the box.

The purpose of this box was to explain (and modify) a wide range of behavioral patterns between different species.

Explanation:

Skinner discovered operant conditioning. He created the "Skinner's box" where a rat deprived of food was placed. Of course, the rat would emit various behaviors at random, and as he approached a bar near the wall, Skinner would drop a drop of water into the box through a mechanism and the rat would drink it. The next drops were displayed as the mouse moved a little closer to the bar. The others when the mouse touched its nose to the bar. Then the paws. And so on until the rat was pressing the bar dozens of times until it completely quenched its thirst. It was observed that rat behaviors that were followed by a reinforcing stimulus (water) increased in frequency while others decreased. Just like natural selection where the most adapted species survive and the least become rarer or eventually disappear. With this principle Skinner began to model different behavioral patterns in different species.