Skinner Would Be Proud

In the early days of psychology BF Skinner constructed certain mechanical contraptions to test learning and reinforcement of behaviors. The classic birds pecking at a button a thousand times to get a piece of food and whatnot.

He'd have been fascinated to be in my office today. Lisa was calling some number and got one of those damnably annoying voice-recognizing prompts. Instead of simply navigating through, she simply spouted "operator" and "customer service" over and over for what seemed like interminable minutes.

Then a food pellet came out of the phone and she was happy.