What is shaping
Differential reinforcement of successive approximations of a target behavior
Behavioral acquisition strategies
prompting and transfer of stimulus control
chaining
behavioral skills training
examples of shaping
Language development
* Getting a rat to press a lever
* Animal training
* Rehabilitation (O’Neill & Gardner, 1983)
* Voice volume (Jackson & Wallace, 1974)
* Self-injurious behavior (Schaeffer, 1970)
* Sports applications
* Preparation for medical procedures
How to use shaping
To identify the starting behavior
The person/animal must already exhibit the starting behavior
* Choose a behavior you can build on to achieve the target behavior
Choose the shaping steps
Each step is a closer approximation to the target behavior
* Steps are not too big
Choose the reinforcer
Reinforce each successive approximation
Reinforce first approximation until it occurs a number of times
* Stop reinforcing first approximation and reinforce next approximation until it occurs a number of
times
* Continue until the target behavior occurs
What is a prompt?
An antecedent stimulus: event that controls a response
* Prompts get the behavior to occur in the
correct situation
When do you prompt?
During discrimination training?
Response prompts
Behavior of another person evokes the desired response
- Verbal prompt
- Gestural prompt
- Modeling prompt
- Physical prompt
Stimulus prompts
Involve change in an antecedent stimulus, or the addition or removal of an antecedent stimulus
- Within-stimulus prompt
- Extra-stimulus prompt
Within-stimulus prompt
changing the discriminative stimulus(SD)
ex: change position, size, or intensity; teaching to hit a ball and changing the position someone hits it at
Extra stimulus prompt
adding another stimulus or cue to the SD
transfer of stimulus control
getting the behavior to occur in the presence of the SD without prompts
-prompt fading
-prompt delay
-stimulus fading
Prompt fading
a response prompt is removed gradually across learning trials until the prompt is no longer provided
Prompt delay
you present the SD, wait a certain number of seconds, and then, if the correct response is not made, you provide the
prompt. The time delay between the presentation of the SD and the prompt may
be constant or progressive
stimulus fading
involve gradually removing an
additional stimulus as the response began occurring reliably in the presence of the SD. Once this additional stimulus is completely removed and the response continues to occur in the presence of the SD, stimulus control has been transferred to the SD
ex: tracing letters
using prompting and fading
Using index cards to study example
* What is the SD?
* What is R?
* What is the prompt?
* How to fade?
Stimulus response chain
Each chain of behaviors starts with an SD
Each response produces an SD for the next response
The next response in the chain depends on the occurrence of the previous response
Reinforcer at the end
Task analysis
Identification of all stimuli (SDs) and responses (Rs) in a
behavioral chain;The process of analyzing a behavioral chain by breaking it down into its individual stimulus-response components
* Example: Eating a bowl of oatmeal
(SD1) bowl of oatmeal, spoon in hand →(R1) put spoon in food
(SD2) spoon in food →(R2) scoop food onto spoon
(SD3) food on spoon → (R3) Put food in mouth → (SR) eat
Training sequence for each component of task analysis