ABSTRACT
Shaping In Chapters 4 and 5, we described how positive reinforcement could be used to increase the frequency of a behavior provided that the behavior occurred occasionally. But what if a desired behavior never occurs? In that case, it is not possible to increase its frequency simply by waiting until it occurs and then reinforcing it. However, a procedure called shaping can be used to establish a behavior that the individual never performs. The behavior modifier begins by reinforcing a response that occurs with a frequency greater than zero and that at least remotely resembles the final target behavior. Frank, for example, was first reinforced for walking once around his house because this behavior occurred occasionally and remotely approximated his nonexistent behavior of jogging a quarter of a mile. When this initial response is occurring at a high frequency, the behavior modifier stops reinforcing it and begins reinforcing a slightly closer approximation of the final target behavior. In this way, the final target behavior is eventually established by reinforcing successive approximations to it. Shaping can be defined as the development of a new operant behavior by the reinforcement of successive approximations of that behavior and the extinction of earlier approximations of that behavior until the new behavior occurs. Shaping is sometimes referred to as the method of successive approximations.
