FRHD 3150 Chapter 7: CHAPTER 7
1 Jun 2018
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CHAPTER 7
Shaping
• Establish a behaviour that the individual never preforms
• Development of a new operant behaviour by the reinforcement of successive approximations of
that behaviour and the extinction of earlier approximations
• 5 aspects of behaviour that can be shaped
o Topography
▪ Spatial configuration or form of a particular response
o Frequency
▪ Number of instances that occur in a given period of time
o Duration
▪ Length of time that it lasts
o Latency
▪ Time between the occurrence of a stimulus and the response evoked by that
stimulus
o Intensity
▪ Physical effect the response has on the environment
Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Shaping
• Specifying the final target behaviour
o Increases the chances for consistent reinforcement of successive approximations of that
behaviour
• Choosing the starting behaviour
o Behaviour that occurs often enough to be reinforced within in session time
• Choosing the shaping steps
o Outline the successive approximations through which the person will be moved in the
attempts to approximate the final target behaviour
• The pace of movement through the shaping steps
o Reinforce an approximation at least several times before proceeding to the next step
o Avoid reinforcing too many times at any shaping step
o If you lose a behaviour because you are moving too fast or taking too large a setp
Pitfalls of Shaping
• Unaware-misapplication pitfall
• Failure-to-apply pitfall
• Inaccurate-explanation-of-behaviour pitfall
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