ShapingShapingShapingShapingPresented By:Presented By:

Nor Anisa MusaNor 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 LanguageSentence

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

Move through the shaping steps at a proper pace.

Differentially reinforce Each successive approximation.

Choose the reinforcer to use in

the shaping procedure.

Choose the shaping steps.

Identify the starting behavior.

Determine whether shaping is the

most appropriate procedure.

Define the target behavior.

How?

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.