Shaping Flashcards
What is Differential Reinforcement
Where one particular behaviour is reinforced and all other behaviours are not
What are Successive Aproximations
working up to a behaviour by doing a number of different behaviours that are more similar each time until the target behaviour is reached (shaping steps)
What is Shaping?
the differential reinforcement of successive approximations of the target behaviour, until the target behaviour (or terminal behaviour) is reached
When do you move in to the next step in shaping, and what happens if you move through the steps too quickly
You move on to the next step when the previous step is 100p learned, if you move too quickly, the behaviour returns to a previous approximation
What are the 2 types of shaping
Quantitative Shaping = when a target behaviour increases (or decreases) over time by one of the dimensions
Qualitative Shaping = successive behaviours resemble the target behaviour
What are the 4 dimensions of Quantitative Shaping ?
Frequency
Duration
Latency
Intensity
What are 3 areas shaping have been applied to
Physical therapy and Exercise
Appropriate classroom behaviours
Animal Training
Skinner believed it was easy to shape behaviour in what 3 animals?
Pigeons, Dogs, and Babies
“Look magazine” challenged skinner in 1952, to back up his claims that shaping is possible, so what did Skinner do to prove it
He brought a Dalmatian in and trained it to jump a wall, and open a waste basket in only 20 minutes
What was “project pigeon”
Skinner attempted to use pigeons to guide missiles
How was skinner able to teach the pigeons how to bowl
He tried to teach it how to bowl, but the pigeon wouldn’t swipe the ball, so instead he started to “reinforce” any response of swiping, and in a few minutes the pigeon was bowling
What are the first 3 steps of shaping
- Define a target behavior precisely
- Determine whether shaping is the best procedure
- Identify the starting behaviour (should already be demonstrated by individual)
What are the last 4 steps of shaping (steps 4-7)
- Choose the shaping steps
- Decide what reinforcer to apply
- Apply reinforcers to successive approximations
- Proceed at an appropriate pace
What are 4 limitations of Shaping
- Time consuming if lots of approximations are required
- Process is not always linear (inconsistent)
- Requires very close monitoring
- might create other problem behaviours
When should you NOT use shaping
If the person already engages in the target behaviour occasionally. Instead you can use differential reinforcement to increase the frequency of it
