B. F. Skinner rejected all talk about what is going on inside the organism (mental processes) and took the Watsonian approach to the extreme. However, Skinner did not believe that all behavior could be explained by the simple SR (stimulus-response) model. He believed that rather than being elicited, most behavioral responses are actually emitted or sent forth by the organism in relation to certain consequent environmental factors which either reinforce the behavior emitted or fail to reinforce. Skinner coined the term "operant response" also known as "operant conditioning". Operant conditioning focuses on the response and states that those responses that are followed by some sort of reinforcement are more likely to be emitted again or not. Skinner dismissed the stimulation of the response (why did the dog salivate at the bell), thereby also dismissing discussion of the nature of drives and needs (Rychlak, 1981).

His approach is often described using the "black box metaphor." This metaphor compares the learner's mind to a black box, the contents of which cannot be seen or known. However, knowledge of the contents is unnecessary for understanding how behavior is affected by environmental stimuli.

A good distinction between classical conditioning (Watsonian) and operant conditioning (Skinner) is the classical conditioner looks to the size of the response eventually conditioned (for example, the amount of saliva secreted) or the rapidity with which this response is made as the measure of learning. The operant conditioner, however, focuses on the frequency of conditioned response as the measure of learning (Driscoll, 2000).

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