Skinner Claims Machines Guard Against Cheating

Cheating on the "teaching machines" used in Natural Sciences 114 can be detected in several ways, Burrhus F. Skinner, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, warned last night.

Skinner, who developed the machines himself, emphasized that very few cases of cheating have taken place. However, certain safeguards do exist to allow most cheating to be detected by the instructors, he said.

The machines are used to give students practice in the material of the course, but a part of the final grade is based on the amount of practice the student gets.

When a teaching disk is inserted in the machine, a question appears in a slot. The student then writes his answer in the place provided. He pushes a lever and his answer slides up beneath a glass plate, so that changes cannot be made. At the same time, the correct answer is revealed in another slot. The process continues until all questions on the disk have been correctly answered.

Several students in the course have sought to complete the work more rapidly by managing to advance the disk on the machine so that the question and answer are revealed simultaneously. According to Skinner, an analysis of the series of punched holes on the answer sheet will show instructors when this has been done. "We're bringing out a new model next year that will eliminate all possibility of cheating," he added.