1. Lecture5 increasing THE FREQUENCY OF BEHAVIOR – Shaping and chaining
Behavior Analysis
Lecture5
increasing THE FREQUENCY OF BEHAVIOR –
Shaping and chaining

2. Shaping
Imagine your partner has ill health and has been advised, by the doctor, to swim as much as possible. Except she never swims!
If she never swims, then you cant reinforce the behavior of swimming.
And all the prompts you have tried haven't worked, what do you do?
In this situation you will want to reinforce behavior that takes her in the right direction
In other words, you start with what the person does and build on that toward the behavior you want.
This process is called ‘shaping’
Lets play a game – hotter and colder

3. Shaping Defined
Shaping is used when the target behavior does not yet exist
In shaping, what is reinforced is some approximation of the behavior
By approximation, I mean any behavior that resembles the desired behavior or takes the person closer to the desired behavior
Shaping: the reinforcement of successive approximations of target behavior
Successive approximations are steps toward the target behavior, the behavior you want to shape

4. Shaping
For example, in hot and cold we reinforced movements that takes the player closer to the prize
Each step that gets the person closer to the desired behavior is a successive approximation of that behavior
You can think of the shaping process as a matter of reinforcing a series of sequential steps towards the target behavior
We reinforce those steps along the way, not because we want to establish those steps, but because by reinforcing those steps the person is then more likely to perform the next step and get closer to the desired behavior

5. Studies (Rickard & Mundy, 1965)
These researchers used shaping to treat stuttering in a 9 year old boy named Steve.
Steve had been in speech therapy for 5 years and stuttered very badly
The researchers defined the target problem as repetition errors in conversational speech
The goal was to reduce the frequency of those errors
This was to be accomplished by reinforcing stutter free speech

6. Studies (Rickard & Mundy, 1965)
At first, Steve had to read short phrases printed on cards
The researchers provided positive feedback whenever he read without errors, but later supplemented this reinforcement with ice cream
The reinforcers were contingent on a certain standard of performance, with the standards slowly increasing as Steve progressed
Next this procedure was repeated with full sentences and then paragraphs

7. Studies (Rickard & Mundy, 1965)
However, reading is not the same thing as talking
So once Steve could read without repetition errors the researchers tried conversation
The results of the study showed that Steve was much improved in reading exercises, and that his conversational skills had also improved.
His amount of repetition errors had diminished
This study made good use of shaping – It aimed to reduce repetition errors in free speech. In order to get there it used a number of successive approximations: words, sentences, paragraphs, conversation.

8. Studies (Lovaas, no date)
Chuck was a psychotic child who had many problems
The researchers wanted Chuck to imitate words spoken by adults
In order to do this they shaped his behavior in the following steps
Make a sound when the trainer made a sound
Make the same sound the trainer made
Imitate words
After 26 days of training Chuck was imitating new words and phrases with ease

9. Studies (Ayllon, 1963)
Ayllon (1963) used a kind of shaping in the treatment of a schizophrenic woman, lets call her Matilda
Matilda liked to wear clothes, lot of clothes! She would wear 6 or 7 dresses at the same time and 18 pairs of socks!
In order to get a baseline measure of how much clothing Matilda was wearing, researchers asked nurses to weigh her everyday for 2 weeks and then take away her actual body weight
Baseline showed that she on average wore 25 pounds worth of clothing
The goal was to reduce this amount

10. Studies (Ayllon, 1963)
Ayllon (1963) decided that food could be used as a reinforcer
So he made access to the dining hall contingent on meeting a certain weight requirement.
At first she was given a target of 23 pounds
If she weighed more than the target then she could remove a few items and gain entry, if she didn’t remove clothes she was allowed to eat!
Matilda loved food! So as the target was lowered so Matilda would remove more items of clothing
Eventually Matilda’s clothing weight had fallen from 25 pounds to 3 pounds

11. Rules for shaping
The studies described give an idea about what shaping is
If used properly then it can be powerful
The rules for shaping are
Define the target behavior
Reinforce successive approximations of the target behavior
Monitor the results

12. 1. Define the target behavior
When shaping is involved, some people refer to the target behavior as the terminal or goal behavior
In order to define the target behavior you have to answer the following question
What is it you want the person to be doing at the end of the shaping procedure?

13. 2. Reinforce successive approximations of the target behavior
Something the person currently does can be said to resemble the target behavior
You shape up the target behavior by reinforcing the nearest approximations of that behavior
When you have reinforced the nearest approximation of the target behavior, other approximations of the behavior will usually appear
Shaping is rather like helping someone up a stair case, each step up the ladder is reinforced.

14. 3. Monitor the results
The only way you can gauge how successful you are being at shaping behavior is by noting what changes in behavior are occurring
Are you seeing progress toward the target behavior?
Has the behavior broken down?
Is progress too slow?
If progress is slow then it is probably because your steps between approximations are too large
The most common mistake with shaping: failing to reinforce a new approximation that is only slightly better than the last reinforced approximations

15. Chaining defined
Many new behaviors that you want to build are a series, or chain of behaviors.
A behavior chain is a series of related behaviors that produce reinforcement
Behavior chain: A sequence of related behaviors, each of which provides the cue for the next, and the last of which produces a reinforcer
Actually, almost everything we do can be considered as part of a behavior chain
i.e. even tying your shoes is comprised of series of separate acts that each is linked to the previous act

16. Chaining Each step in a behavior chain serves as cue for the next step
You could even think of a behavior chain as series of signals and behaviors
The completion of one behavior in a chain produces the signal for the next action
Practically any complex behavior you can think of can be thought of as a behavior chain.
So it is pretty important

17. Chaining: the reinforcment of successive elements of a behavior chain
The procedure for building chains is also important, this is called chaining
Chaining: the reinforcment of successive elements of a behavior chain
For example, If you are attempting to teach someone to tie their shoes, you are attempting to build a chain by reinforcing the different acts that we complete in tying a shoe

18. Forward chaining
There are two chaining procedures; forward and backward.
As the name implies, forward chaining starts at the beginning and moves forward
Forward chaining; a training procedure that begins with the first element in the chain and progresses to the last element.
So you start with the first task in the chain, once the person is able to perform that element satisfactorily, you have him perform the first and second elements
Once the first 2 elements are competently done, you have the person perform the first three elements, and so on!

19. Backward chaining
Backward chaining starts with the last component and works backwards
Backward chaining: a chaining procedure that begins with the last element in the chain and progresses to the first element
Although counterintuitive, backward chaining is often more effective than forward chaining

20. Studies (Gruber et al, 1979)
These researchers were trying to get Howard, a severely retarded adult man, to work to a school on an institutionalized site
Howard had an IQ of between 8 and 14, and when given the instruction to go school, often wandered off the route.
In order to train Howard how to walk to school the researchers used a chaining procedure

21. Studies (Gruber et al, 1979)
Beginning near the school, the trainer told Howard to go to school.
The trainer would instruct and nudge Howard if necessary.
Howard was praised enthusiastically when he got to the school
Once this had been repeated on three consecutive trials, the researchers started the procedure from 50 yards further away, and so on.
Eventually Howard was able to walk from his living quarters to the school without assistance
He did this is 10 days with 17 training sessions
What sort of conditioning is this an example of?

22. Rules of chaining
The rules for chaining are very similar to those for shaping
Define the target behavior
Reinforce successive elements of of the chain
Monitor the results

23. 1. Define the target behavior
You of course need to know what the end target behavior is
But with chaining, in order to teach someone to perform the links of a chain, you will need to know exactly what those links are
Sometime these chains are obvious
E.g. washing our hands
However sometimes they are much more complicated. For example, training someone with a head injury to wash their hands might be more difficult, and you may need to break down the chains into further chains

24. 2. Reinforce successive elements of the chain
Once you know the elements of a chain then those elements in a behavior chain must be reinforced, in sequence
Of course in order to get the first element to appear you may have to shape their behavior! In some cases each link in the chain will have to be shaped up.

25. 3. Monitor the results
Why?

26. Shaping versus chaining
Many authors suggest that chaining is simply a form of shaping. But it may be worth distinguishing the two.
The crucial similarity between shaping and chaining is that the goal in each case is to establish a target behavior that doesn’t yet occur.
For example, if you want someone to read, you cant just wait for reading to occur, you have to do something to make it occur

27. Shaping versus chaining
There are several differences between the two procedures
Shaping always moves forward. You may have to return to a previous step, but you will always be looking to move forward. Where as it is quite possible to move backward with backward chaining
Another difference involves when reinforcers are delivered. In shaping, each new approximation is reinforced. In chaining, reinforcers are usually provided at the end of the chain

28. Flash card! Shaping Behavior chain Chaining Forward chaining
The reinforcment of successive approximations of a target behavior
Behavior chain
Sequence of related behaviours, each of which provides the cue for the next, and the last of which produces a reinforcer
Chaining
The reinforcement of successive elements of a behavior chain
Forward chaining
Chaining procedure that begins with the last element in the chain and progresses to the first element
Backward chaining
a chaining procedure that begins with the last element in the chain and progresses to the first element

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