Shaping

Shaping
Presented By:
Nor Anisa Musa
 Shaping
• How do you use shaping to get a novel behavior to occur?
• What a successive approximations to a target behavior?
• How are the principles of reinforcement and extinction
involved in shaping?
• How might shaping be used accidentally to develop a
problem behavior?
• What steps are involved in the successful use of shaping?
 Defining Shaping
• Shaping is used to develop a target
behavior that a person does not currently
exhibit.
• Defined as the deferential reinforcement
of successive approximations of a target
behavior until the person exhibits the
target behavior.
Develop Language
Sentence

String of
words

Whole words

Part words

Word sounds

Babbling
Shaping to get the rat to
press the lever:
The rat press
the lever
The rat touches
the lever
The rat makes a movement
toward the lever with a paw
The rat rears up on
its hind legs

The rat approaches the lever

The rat faces the lever

The rat moves to the side where the lever is located

Establish the clicking sound
as a conditioned reinforcer
• In shaping, each step should be a closer
approximation to the target behavior than
was the previous step.
• When using shaping, timing is very
important.
• For example: the trainers make the
clicking sound each time they give the
dolphin a fish to eat as a reinforcer.
Establish the clicking sound
as a conditioned reinforcer
• Because the clicking sound is paired with
this unconditioned reinforcer, it becomes a
conditioned reinforcer. They use the
conditioned reinforcer because the trainer
can make the clicking sound quickly and
easily and the dolphin’s behavior can be
reinforced immediately without the
disruption of stopping to eat the fish
Establish the clicking sound
as a conditioned reinforcer
• You want to deliver the reinforcer at the exact
instant that the correct approximation occurs,
otherwise, u might accidentally reinforce a
different behavior.
• In addition, the conditioned reinforcer is used so
that the dolphins don’t become satiated with fish.
Fed fish as a reinforcer, the dolphins would
eventually become satiated, and fish would no
longer function as a reinforcer until the dolphin
was hungry again.
 Getting Mrs. F to walk
again
• The target behavior was walking independently
with her walker.
• They wanted Mrs. F to go to the physical therapy
(PT) room where the parallel bars were located.
• When Mrs. F arrived in the PT room in her
wheelchair, the therapist interact warmly with
her and gave her a massage treatment (a pleasant
experience for Mrs. F).
• As a result, going to the PT room was reinforced,
and Mrs. Now went there willingly each day.
 Getting Mrs. F to walk
again
• After a few days, the therapist asked Mrs. F to
stand up between the parallel bars for 1 second (a
successive approximation to walking) before she
could have her massage.
• Mrs. F stood up for 1 second and received her
massage.
• The therapist increased the duration to 15
seconds the next day, and Mrs. F stood at the
parallel bars for 15 seconds before receiving her
massage.
 Getting Mrs. F to walk
again
• After Mrs. F was successfully standing
between the parallel bars, the therapist
asked her to take a few steps one day and
then a few more another day until she was
walking the full length of the parallel bars.
• Eventually, Mrs. F was walking
independently with her walker and was
discharged from the hospital.
 How to use shaping
Define the target
behavior.
Determine whether
Move through the shaping
shaping is the
steps at a proper pace.
most appropriate procedure.

How?
Differentially reinforce Identify the
Each successive approximation. starting behavior.

Choose the reinforcer

to use in
the shaping Choose the
procedure. shaping steps.
 Problem behavior that may
have been developed
through shaping
• For example: self-injurious behavior.
• Such as head-slapping, which may have started as
a mild behavior and grown more severe through
shaping.
• Initially, when the child was upset and slapped his
or her head, the parents responded with concern
(attention), which reinforced the behavior. When
behavior continued, the parent tried to ignore it.
• However, the child slapped harder, and the
parents responded again with concern. This
reinforced the harder head-slapping.
 Problem behavior that may
have been developed
through shaping
• This process was repeated a few more times and,
thus, harder and harder head-slapping was
reinforced, until the behavior was causing injury.
• This study documents that such behaviors may
occur as a result of shaping.
• It is also possible that shaping may be responsible
for the development of self-injurious behavior in
some developmentally disabled people.
 Summary
• Shaping is used to develop a target
behavior that the person does not
currently exhibit.
• Successive approximations (or
shaping steps) are behaviors that are
increasingly more similar to the
target behavior.
 Summary
• Reinforcement and extinction are
involved in shaping when successive
approximations to the target
behavior are reinforced and previous
approximations are put on extinction.
• Shaping may be used inadvertently to
develop problem behaviors.
 Summary
• When a mild problem behavior is put on extinction
and the problem worsens during an extinction
burst, the parent may then reinforce the worse
behavior.
• If this process continues a number of times, the
problem behavior may become progressively worse
through a process of differential reinforcement
of worse and worse instances (more intense, more
frequent, or longer durations) of the behavior.