# Operant Conditioning Library

> Full text of 9 public-domain books behind the science of operant conditioning (1,288,625 words), published by operantconditioning.com. Each book is available as a readable page, one Markdown file, one Markdown file per chapter, and plain text. Machine-readable manifest: https://operantconditioning.com/library/library.json

## Books

- [Animal Intelligence: Experimental Studies (Edward L. Thorndike, 1911)](https://operantconditioning.com/library/thorndike-animal-intelligence/index.md): The puzzle-box experiments and the law of effect: the direct ancestor of operant conditioning. 86,616 words, 8 sections. Plain text: https://operantconditioning.com/library/thorndike-animal-intelligence/book.txt. Chapters: https://operantconditioning.com/library/thorndike-animal-intelligence/chapters/index.md
- [Animal Behaviour (C. Lloyd Morgan, 1900)](https://operantconditioning.com/library/morgan-animal-behaviour/index.md): Morgan's account of learning by trial and error, instinct, and the limits of what animal behavior lets us infer. 115,874 words, 8 sections. Plain text: https://operantconditioning.com/library/morgan-animal-behaviour/book.txt. Chapters: https://operantconditioning.com/library/morgan-animal-behaviour/chapters/index.md
- [The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (William James, 1890)](https://operantconditioning.com/library/james-principles-of-psychology-vol-1/index.md): Volume 1 of James's masterwork, including the chapter on Habit that every account of behavior change still quotes. 237,258 words, 17 sections. Plain text: https://operantconditioning.com/library/james-principles-of-psychology-vol-1/book.txt. Chapters: https://operantconditioning.com/library/james-principles-of-psychology-vol-1/chapters/index.md
- [The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (William James, 1890)](https://operantconditioning.com/library/james-principles-of-psychology-vol-2/index.md): Volume 2: instinct, the emotions, and the will, including the ideo-motor theory of action. 231,048 words, 12 sections. Plain text: https://operantconditioning.com/library/james-principles-of-psychology-vol-2/book.txt. Chapters: https://operantconditioning.com/library/james-principles-of-psychology-vol-2/chapters/index.md
- [The Dancing Mouse: A Study in Animal Behavior (Robert M. Yerkes, 1907)](https://operantconditioning.com/library/yerkes-the-dancing-mouse/index.md): A complete experimental study of one animal's learning: discrimination boxes, labyrinths, learning curves, and the efficiency of training methods. 82,710 words, 20 sections. Plain text: https://operantconditioning.com/library/yerkes-the-dancing-mouse/book.txt. Chapters: https://operantconditioning.com/library/yerkes-the-dancing-mouse/chapters/index.md
- [Clever Hans (The Horse of Mr. von Osten): A Contribution to Experimental Animal and Human Psychology (Oskar Pfungst, 1911)](https://operantconditioning.com/library/pfungst-clever-hans/index.md): The horse that could not count: how Pfungst showed Hans was reading tiny movements of his questioners, and why blind procedures exist. 72,664 words, 14 sections. Plain text: https://operantconditioning.com/library/pfungst-clever-hans/book.txt. Chapters: https://operantconditioning.com/library/pfungst-clever-hans/chapters/index.md
- [Animal Intelligence (George J. Romanes, 1882)](https://operantconditioning.com/library/romanes-animal-intelligence/index.md): The great anecdotal survey of animal minds that experimental psychology was invented to replace. 196,963 words, 20 sections. Plain text: https://operantconditioning.com/library/romanes-animal-intelligence/book.txt. Chapters: https://operantconditioning.com/library/romanes-animal-intelligence/chapters/index.md
- [Animal Life and Intelligence (C. Lloyd Morgan, 1891)](https://operantconditioning.com/library/morgan-animal-life-and-intelligence/index.md): Morgan's first full treatment of animal minds, with his early chapters on habit, instinct and the senses. 165,549 words, 13 sections. Plain text: https://operantconditioning.com/library/morgan-animal-life-and-intelligence/book.txt. Chapters: https://operantconditioning.com/library/morgan-animal-life-and-intelligence/chapters/index.md
- [The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Charles Darwin, 1872)](https://operantconditioning.com/library/darwin-expression-of-the-emotions/index.md): Darwin on habit: how serviceable actions become habitual, associated, and inherited. 99,943 words, 15 sections. Plain text: https://operantconditioning.com/library/darwin-expression-of-the-emotions/book.txt. Chapters: https://operantconditioning.com/library/darwin-expression-of-the-emotions/chapters/index.md

## Where to start for operant conditioning

- [Animal Intelligence: Chapter II. Animal Intelligence; an Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals](https://operantconditioning.com/library/thorndike-animal-intelligence/chapters/03-animal-intelligence-an-experimental-study-of-the.md): 38,513 words
- [Animal Intelligence: Chapter VI. Laws and Hypotheses for Behavior](https://operantconditioning.com/library/thorndike-animal-intelligence/chapters/07-laws-and-hypotheses-for-behavior.md): 12,559 words
- [Animal Behaviour: Chapter IV. Intelligent Behaviour](https://operantconditioning.com/library/morgan-animal-behaviour/chapters/05-intelligent-behaviour.md): 20,964 words
- [The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1: Chapter IV. Habit](https://operantconditioning.com/library/james-principles-of-psychology-vol-1/chapters/05-habit.md): 9,794 words
- [The Dancing Mouse: Chapter XII. Educability: Methods of Learning](https://operantconditioning.com/library/yerkes-the-dancing-mouse/chapters/14-educability-methods-of-learning.md): 3,041 words
- [The Dancing Mouse: Chapter XIII. Habit Formation: the Labyrinth Habit](https://operantconditioning.com/library/yerkes-the-dancing-mouse/chapters/15-habit-formation-the-labyrinth-habit.md): 5,024 words
- [The Dancing Mouse: Chapter XIV. Habit Formation: the Discrimination Method](https://operantconditioning.com/library/yerkes-the-dancing-mouse/chapters/16-habit-formation-the-discrimination-method.md): 3,312 words
- [The Dancing Mouse: Chapter XV. The Efficiency of Training Methods](https://operantconditioning.com/library/yerkes-the-dancing-mouse/chapters/17-the-efficiency-of-training-methods.md): 3,603 words
- [The Dancing Mouse: Chapter XVI. The Duration of Habits: Memory and Re-Learning](https://operantconditioning.com/library/yerkes-the-dancing-mouse/chapters/18-the-duration-of-habits-memory-and-re-learning.md): 3,704 words
- [Clever Hans: Chapter V. Explanation of the Observations](https://operantconditioning.com/library/pfungst-clever-hans/chapters/07-explanation-of-the-observations.md): 17,505 words

## Manifest and conventions

- [library.json](https://operantconditioning.com/library/library.json): every book and chapter with metadata, copyright status and URLs
- [Library page](https://operantconditioning.com/library/index.md): reading order, what is not included, copyright notes
- Markdown files: `##` chapter headings, `###`/`####` sections, `[^n]` footnotes numbered through the book, figures as `![caption](images/…)`
- Copyright: all public domain in the United States (published before 1931); see each book's header for life-plus-70 status

## Optional

- [Site-wide llms.txt](https://operantconditioning.com/llms.txt): the guide to operant conditioning that cites these books
- [History of operant conditioning](https://operantconditioning.com/history/index.md): the narrative that connects them