Shaping & Chaining

Question 1

Shaping & Chaining

Answer 1

• Here’s a problem:
• What if you want to reinforce a behavior but it
  never appears to occur?
• Example: reinforce a monkey for “playing” a guitar
• Children learning language
• If you can’t reinforce a behavior until it occurs, how
  can you teach a complex behavior using operant
  conditioning?

Question 2

Shaping

Answer 2

• Reinforcing
  responses that
  come successively
  closer to desired
  response

Question 3

Shaping

Answer 3

• “Establishing a behavior that never occurs”
• According to your book:
• Five aspects of behavior that can be shaped
• Topography – specific movements involved
• Intensity – force of a response; physical effect the response has on the environment
• 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
• Are these all shaping?
• Probably not – adjusting, chaining, etc.

Question 4

How to shape behavior

Answer 4

• Specifying the terminal desired behavior
• 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
• 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

Question 5

Chaining

Answer 5

• A sequence of 2 or more simple schedules each of
  which has its own SD and the last of which results in
  the terminal reinforcer
• The keys act as discriminative stimuli for the
  response pattern that follows
• The red and green keys act as both SDs secondary
  reinforcers

Question 6

Chained

Answer 6

• Goal gradient
• Increase in response efficiency closer to the goal
• Responses in the early part of the chain are weaker
  than those in latter parts of the chain
• Easy to observe if each link consists of the same
  reinforcement schedule
• Slower rate of response and longer pauses on white key
  than green; strongest response on red key
• Terminal reinforcer is more immediate, influential

Question 7

• Total Task Presentation
  –Attempt all steps of the chain
  –Continue until every step is mastered
  –Prompting provided as needed
  –Reinforcement provided upon completing last
  step
• Forward Chaining
  –Initial step first
  –Then, first and second… etc.
  –On each trial, last step that was developed is
  reinforced

Answer 7

• Total Task Presentation
  –Attempt all steps of the chain
  –Continue until every step is mastered
  –Prompting provided as needed
  –Reinforcement provided upon completing last
  step
• Forward Chaining
  –Initial step first
  –Then, first and second… etc.
  –On each trial, last step that was developed is
  reinforced

Question 8

Backward chaining

Answer 8

• To establish a chained schedule train the final link in the
  chain first
• Can also have a chained schedule where each link in the chain consists of a different response
• Example
• To train a child to dress himself.
• Day 1 - shoes on →reward
• Day 2 - socks on, shoes on → reward
• Day 3 - pants on, socks on, shoes on → reward

Question 9

Introducing Behavioral Chaining

Answer 9

• Do a task analysis: Identify the components of
  the final sequence
• Components should be selected so that there is a
  clear stimulus signaling the completion of each
  component
• Review each of the controlling stimuli for each of
  the responses in the sequence
• If similar stimuli control different responses, there is more chance for error and confusion

Question 10

Teaching Tasks

Answer 10

• Consider strategies for independent use of
  prompts by learners
• Written task analysis
• Picture prompts
• Reciting self-instructions
• Consider conducting a preliminary modeling
  trial
• Model entire sequence while verbally describing
  the performance of each step
• Begin training the behavior chain
• Give instructions to begin work
• Start with appropriate step for the type of chaining
  method used
• If learner makes a mistake, use error correction
• Provide necessary instruction or physical guidance
• After error corrected, move to next step

Question 11

Teaching Tasks

Answer 11

• Consider using ample social and other
  reinforcers
• Decrease extra assistance at individual steps
  as quickly as possible