How Shaping Is An Applied Behavioral Analysis Technique

B.F Skinner was an American Psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber. The chamber he set up had rats in it and a lever, once the rats pulled the lever they were given a piece of food. After this happened the rate of bar pressing would increase dramatically and remain high until the rat was no longer hungry. He was a firm believer of the idea that human free will was actually an illusion and any human

Within the concept of operant conditioning, there are various simple schedules of reinforcement that are a part of our daily routine. Operant conditioning is a category of learning that invokes consequences, either negative or positive, as a way to increase or decrease behaviors (Powel, Honey & Symbaluk, 2013, p. 264) Schedules of reinforcement, such as fixed ratio, variable interval, fixed interval and variable ratio, are used as ways to strengthened or weaken those wanted or unwanted behaviors (Powel, Honey & Symbaluk, 2013, pp. 271-279). When applying these fundamental concepts to real world scenarios, it is crucial to first acknowledge which behavior is to be strengthened or weakened and then proceed with the conditioning.

For centuries, criminals have been punished in ways not limited to physical incarceration. In Babylonian times, the Code of Hammurabi guaranteed justice by ensuring the perpetrator’s punishment was commensurate to his or her crime; for example, “an eye for an eye.” A punishment such as that was the cornerstone of justice because it removed what the culprit robbed from his or her victim. In other cases, much like the one currently in place in the United States, a convicted felon is not only physically imprisoned, but also civilly and mentally incarcerated. Even after a citizen convicted felon is released from prison, his or her civil duties are no longer required by society, duties such as voting, a fundamental part of the American democratic

In the time of The Essex and In the Heart of the Sea, Nantucket had a population of about 7,000, most of the population living along a road on a rising hill marked with windmills and church steeples. At the waterfront, four large docks extended more than 100 yards into the sea from the harbor. Tied up to these docks were typically 15 to 20 whale ships, along with dozens of other small fishing boats and ships that carried trade goods to and from the island.The first whaling boats were only 20 feet long, launched from beaches along the island’s south shore. Usually a boat would comprise of five Wampanoag (Nantucket Natives) and a white man steering the boat. These boats were only used for whaling around the island, as the had to be rowed back

Behaviorist B.F. Skinner, which is why you may occasionally hear it referred to as Skinnerian conditioning coined operant conditioning. As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that internal thoughts and motivations could not be used to explain behavior. Instead, he suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes of human behavior.

Just as Freud is known as the father of Psychoanalysis, B.F. Skinner is often referred to ask the “the father of operant conditioning.” B.F. Skinner is also known for major contributions to the field of psychology (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). Skinner was a prolific author, publishing nearly 200 articles and more than 20 books. Skinner was most known for his work in behavior psychology. Behavioral psychology is the psychological practice that focuses on learning new behaviors and how to modify our existing behavior and how that takes place (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). One of his major contributions was his theory of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning means roughly, the changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement, either positive or negative, and which these reinforcements are given after the desired response (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow behavior.

The Fates are often portrayed in modern movies and pieces of literature because of their importance in Greek mythology. These sisters are shown in latin and greek mythology. In Latin the Fates were also known as Parcae and in greek they were known as Moirae. Most do not know why the Fates were enfact crucial to Greek and other mythologies. Without these sisters the stories of Greek mythology and the outcomes would not be the same.

A question Skinner had to deal with was how we get to more complex sorts of behaviors. He responded with the idea of shaping, or “the method of successive approximations.” Basically, it involves first reinforcing a behavior only vaguely similar to the one desired. Once that is established, you look out for variations that come a little closer to what you want, and so on, until you have the animal performing a behavior that would never show up in ordinary life. Skinner and his students have been quite successful in teaching simple animals to do some quite extraordinary things.

In operant conditioning, it is possible to strengthen responses by either presenting positive reinforcement or by the removal of negative reinforces. "New responses can be learned by organisms by gradually reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the desired response" (Weiten p. 238). This is what is meant by shaping, It is the gradual use of reinforcement until the desired response has been reached.

The formal method of instilling learning through reinforcement theory is to use a schedule. According to a fixed schedule, a person is rewarded for performing the behavior a specific number of times; according to a continuous ratio schedule, the reward occurs after every behavior, and according to a variable ratio schedule, the reward does not occur with any predictable consistency when the behavior is performed. The advantages of fixed and continuous rewards are that the behavior is more quickly instilled. The advantage of a variable schedule is that the behavior is less quickly extinguished, given the subject anticipates getting a reward for a longer period of time (Noe 2010: 143).

Using the previously saved file some adjustments were made before training Sniffy. The session was adjusted to the Design Operant Conditioning Experiment with the Reinforcement Schedule set to Continuous. The Recorded Shaping Behavior was set to Press Bar in order to begin training Sniffy to press the bar. Sniffy was first rewarded only when Sniffy would rear up facing the wall where the bar and hopper were located. Later Sniffy would be rewarded when he reared closer and

“‘Conditioning’ simply means learning, and the term ‘operant’ refers to something that acts upon something else. Operant conditioning, then, is a form of testing in which an animal learns that a response, such as pressing a lever, results in a consequence, such as a food pellet being delivered to the animal (Pritchett & Mulder, 2004).” In operant conditioning, there are two categories: reinforcement and punishment. Both can be utilized using either positive or negative strategies. In reinforcement tactics, the behavior is attempted to be increased. A positive example of this would be praising a child if they say something that resembles mama or dada for their first words. A negative example would be the parents not responding or even chiding the child for mumbling or not being very coherent. Each action is strengthened by the parents reinforcement of praise when saying the correct words or their disregard when the child does not sound coherent. In the positive example, praise is being offered so the child is receiving something, therefore making the reinforcement positive. When the parents ignore the wrong words that the child speaks, we describe

Our behavior depends much on our environment. Lauren Slater author of Opening Skinner’s Box states “You are operating on your environment. If one can condition a reflex, would it not be too much to try to go one step further and condition cart wheels, or other supposedly freeform movements?” (11) Slater’s point is that humans have the ability to improve their human characteristics. We need to focus on improving our selves instead of focusing on improving the

As a dog owner, I know how important it is to teach your pets how to behave. Yet, it is important to understand how learning works so that you can develop a strategy to properly and quickly teach your dog. The example of training a dog to roll over is a great model for analysing the aspects of learning involved with this process. Understanding how operant conditioning works and how to reinforce a desired response to that stimuli will help trainers effectively teach dogs. Psychologists, such as Myers (2013), define learning as the process of acquiring new knowledge and behaviors. In this case we are specifically discussing the acquisition of a certain response to a stimulus. The stimulus is the trainer’s command and the desired behavior is the dog to roll over onto his back. These ideas all are based on Edward L. Thorndike’s principle called the law of effect, wherein he stated that behaviors followed by a positive outcomes are more likely to increase in probability. These are all important components of the learning process, especially on the level of training a dog or instilling a simple behavior.

Skinner’s reinforcement experiments conducted on rats showed the principles of operant conditioning. While working with rats, Skinner would place them in a Skinner box with a lever attached to a feeding tube. After multiple trials, rats learned the connection between the lever and food, and started to spend more time in the box procuring food than performing any other action. He used positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement to produce or inhibit specific target behaviors. Therefore, if a specific behavior is reinforced then the probability of that behavior occurring again is increased. Based on Skinner’s view, this theory can be applied to learning because learning is nothing more than a change in behavior. Operant conditioning encourages positive reinforcement, which can be applied in the classroom environment to get the good behavior you want and need from students. One of the ways of reinforcing a student’s behavior is through praise. Also teachers can build operant conditioning techniques into their lesson plans to teach children possible skills as well as good behaviors. For example: to give a smiley face, or motivational stamps to encourage children to perform correctly and encourage them to repeat such action again.