Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Getting a New Behavior to Occur with Shaping Chapter 10

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Definition Shaping –Development of a new behavior by successive reinforcement of closer approximations and extinguishing preceding approximations of behavior Five aspects of behavior that can be shaped –Topography – specific movements involved –Frequency – number of instances that occur in a given period of time –Duration – length of time a response lasts –Latency – time between occurrence of a stimulus and the response evoked by that stimulus –Intensity – force of a response; physical effect the response has on the environment

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Shaping Specifying the final desired behavior –Terminal behavior – final desired behavior –Specify precise behavior and conditions under which it is to occur Choosing a starting behavior –Should be a behavior that occurs often enough to reinforce within session time –Should be a behavior that approximates the final desired behavior

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Shaping Choosing the shaping steps –Helpful to outline the approximations that will be reinforced Moving along at the correct pace –Reinforce an approximation at least several times before proceeding to the next step –Avoid reinforcing too many times at any shaping step –If behavior is lost because the program was moving too fast, or the steps were too big, return to an earlier approximation

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Pitfalls of Shaping Shaping can be accidentally applied with unfortunate results –Harmful behaviors may be accidentally shaped Children may not get the necessary shaping to develop basic behaviors –E.g., developing speech

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Guidelines for the Effective Application of Shaping Select the terminal or final desired behavior Select the starting behavior Select an appropriate reinforcer Develop the initial plan Implement the plan –Tell the learner about the plan before starting –Begin reinforcing immediately following each occurrence of the starting behavior –Never move to a new approximation until the previous one is mastered –If learner stops working, they may have moved up the steps too quickly, steps may not be the right size, or the reinforcer may be ineffective