There is another great example in our text to illustrate shaping.   It has to do with a boy, Andrew, who did not speak.   A reinforcer, gum, was used to help Andrew begin to speak.  

 

If an individual already exhibits a specific behavior and we want to see more of it, we simply reinforce that behavior.    If Andrew was already talking from time to time, for example, then his therapist could have reinforced him after those events in order to increase the talking behavior.  

However, Andrew was not talking on his own, and this behavior wasn't available to reinforce.   So, we must use shaping when we're trying to teach or reinforce a new behavior that isn't occurring on its own.    Once a behavior is in place, we want to take ourselves out of the equation so that the behavior can be maintained and generalized to other situations when we aren't present.   So, little by little, we fade the reinforcement as the natural reinforcers take over.   

Class, can you think of a behavior that you've shaped in another individual?   Did your reinforcement follow this progression?

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Many people have likely shaped a behavior in another individual consciously or unconsciously throughout their lives Here are some examples of shaped b... View the full answer