1 / 6

Getting a New Behavior to Occur: An Application of Shaping

Getting a New Behavior to Occur: An Application of Shaping. Chapter 10. Definition. Shaping Development of a new behavior by successive reinforcement of closer approximations and extinguishing of preceding approximations of behavior Five aspects of behavior that can be shaped

gabe
Download Presentation

Getting a New Behavior to Occur: An Application of Shaping

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Getting a New Behavior to Occur: An Application of Shaping Chapter 10

  2. Definition • Shaping • Development of a new behavior by successive reinforcement of closer approximations and extinguishing of 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. Pitfalls of Shaping • Shaping can be accidentally applied with unfortunate results • Harmful behaviors may be accidentally shaped • Undesirable behaviors can be eliminated by combination of extinction of undesirable behavior and reinforcement of desirable behavior • May be difficult because: • Behavior is sometimes too harmful • Inexperienced individuals may unknowingly foil the efforts of those who are conscientiously attempting to apply these principles • Children may not get the necessary shaping to develop basic behaviors • i.e. developing speech

  6. Guidelines for the Effective Application of Shaping • Set the terminal behavior • Select an appropriate reinforcer • Develop the initial plan • Implement the plan • Tell learner about plan before starting • Begin reinforcing immediately following each occurrence of the starting behavior • Never move to new approximation until the previous one is mastered • If learner stops working, may have moved up the steps too quickly, steps may not be the right size, or the reinforcer may be ineffective

More Related