Babies in Boxes

Most of you will probably be familiar with the skinner box. But how about his great cradle design for his daughter?

Dr Skinner: "When we decided to have another child, my wife and I felt that it was time to apply a little labor-saving invention and design to the problems of the nursery. We began by going over the disheartening schedule of the young mother, step by step. We asked only one question: Is this practice important for the physical and psychological health of the baby? When it was not, we marked it for elimination. Then the 'gadgeteering' began. The result was an inexpensive apparatus in which our baby daughter has now been living for eleven months."

Deborah Skinner, some years later: "I was very happy, too, though I must report at this stage that I remember nothing of those first two and a half years. I am told that I never once objected to being put back inside. I had a clear view through the glass front and, instead of being semi-swaddled and covered with blankets, I luxuriated semi-naked in warm, humidified air. The air was filtered but not germ-free, and when the glass front was lowered into place, the noise from me and from my parents and sister was dampened, not silenced."

The application of experimental design to baby-rearing. Most excellent. So Naomi. Fancy giving it a try?