PSYB45H3 Chapter 10: Study Guide For Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Getting a New Behaviour to Occur: An Application of Shaping
Three stages to shape certain behaviour within an individual
- Specify the final desired behaviour
- Identify a response that could be used as a starting point in working toward the final
desired behaviour
o For someone wanting to jog quarter a mile in a day start off by walking outside
with sneakers out of the house
- Reinforcement the start response; then make closer and closer approximations until
eventually the desired response occurs
Shaping
- Can be used to establish a behaviour the individual never performs
- The modifier begins by reinforcing a response that occurs with greater than zero
frequency and at least remotely resembles the final desired response
- It is sometimes referred to as “the method of successive approximations”
- Can sometimes be defined as the development of a new behaviour by the successive
reinforcement of closer approximations and the extinguishing of preceding
approximations of behaviour
- A good example of shaping can be how when children first babble by using words such
as “dada” and “ma-ma” parents reinforce them with positive caring behaviour and
eventually those behaviours extinguish and new behaviour is establish
- Five aspects or dimensions of behaviour that can be shaped:
o Topography
! Spatial configuration or a form of a particular response
! Behaviours such as teaching a child to say mommy instead of ma-ma
o Frequency
! A behaviour that occurs a number of times in a given period
! During an exercise, number of steps that a person walks
! Duration is the length of time that it last
• An example would be lengthen time of studying before taking a
break
o Latency
! Time between the occurrence of a stimulus and the response evoked by
that stimulus
! A common name for latency is “reaction time”
o Intensity
! It is the force of response
! The physical effect the response has (or potentially) has on the
environment
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Document Summary
Chapter 10: getting a new behaviour to occur: an application of shaping. Three stages to shape certain behaviour within an individual. Reinforcement the start response; then make closer and closer approximations until eventually the desired response occurs. Can be used to establish a behaviour the individual never performs. The modifier begins by reinforcing a response that occurs with greater than zero frequency and at least remotely resembles the final desired response. It is sometimes referred to as the method of successive approximations . Can sometimes be defined as the development of a new behaviour by the successive reinforcement of closer approximations and the extinguishing of preceding approximations of behaviour. A good example of shaping can be how when children first babble by using words such as dada and ma-ma parents reinforce them with positive caring behaviour and eventually those behaviours extinguish and new behaviour is establish. Five aspects or dimensions of behaviour that can be shaped: topography.
