Main content
MCAT
Course: MCAT > Unit 11
Lesson 9: Learning- Learning questions
- Classical and operant conditioning article
- Classical conditioning: Neutral, conditioned, and unconditioned stimuli and responses
- Classical conditioning: Extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination
- Operant conditioning: Positive-and-negative reinforcement and punishment
- Operant conditioning: Shaping
- Operant conditioning: Schedules of reinforcement
- Operant conditioning: Innate vs learned behaviors
- Operant conditioning: Escape and avoidance learning
- Observational learning: Bobo doll experiment and social cognitive theory
- Long term potentiation and synaptic plasticity
- Non associative learning
- Biological constraints on learning
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Operant conditioning: Shaping
Created by Jeffrey Walsh.
Want to join the conversation?
- Will we have to do a headstand on MCAT test day?(29 votes)
- Here is a simplified definition and example:
Shaping – instead of rewarding only the target behaviour (i.e. the final, desired behaviour that you want to train), the process of shaping involves the reinforcement of successive approximations of the target behaviour.
Example
• Target behaviour – bird performs a complex task that involves spinning in a circle and pressing a button.
• In shaping, you would reward it at varying steps through the process over time:
–– Treat given every time it turns a little.
–– After a while you only give it a treat when it makes a full circle.
–– After this you, only give it a treat if it makes a full circle and maybe bends towards the button.
–– Finally, you reward the bird only for completing the full task.
–– In this way, it learns to perform a different part of the task in small intervals.(13 votes) - is shaping only done by reinforcement or can punishment also be used?(3 votes)
- Could you make a video differentiating between shaping and chaining? Or explain it here.(2 votes)
- Is shaping the same thing as training?(2 votes)
- But where is the 'reinforcement' of the behavior? You showed the steps necessary to GET to the desired behavior, but where is the motivation (aka: desire/reinforcement) to do that?(1 vote)
- He mentioned praise and rewards.(3 votes)
- What is that little circle he keeps putting on the head lololol an eye? a nose??(1 vote)
- how does this differ from skinner(1 vote)
- This could have been explained in 30 seconds. Bottom line is that in operant conditioning, shaping refers to a process where small steps are taken and reinforced in order to get to some bigger target behavior.(0 votes)
- but maybe this way some of us can remember better.(4 votes)
- How can I cite this using APA?(0 votes)
Video transcript
If someone were to say I want
to learn to do a headstand, you might think of the headstand
as some sort of activity or behavior that
they're going to learn through practicing headstands. But I want to emphasize a
certain word in the sentence, and that's "learn." Oftentimes when we
think about learning, we think of things
like learning facts. For instance, if
I were to tell you to learn that the
capital of Ohio was Columbus, if you
didn't know that, you might learn it by
writing it down over and over and say, OK, Columbus, Ohio. Columbus, Ohio. Or maybe you'll make
a flash card with Ohio on one side and
Columbus on the other. And that's the type of learning
where you're learning facts. But learning a
headstand, there really isn't any note cards, or flash
cards, or notes involved. It's more a matter of
practicing the behavior of performing a headstand. But if you're like me,
performing a headstand isn't something that
I can do naturally. Someone who can
perform a headstand typically learned to
do it through practice. And that learning
through practice idea has a specific name in
operant conditioning. And the term for this type
of learning is "shaping." And shaping is something
that you are already very familiar with. But maybe you've never
heard the term before. The idea of shaping is that
you successively or gradually reinforce behaviors
that lead up to or approximate the
target behavior. So you successively-- or another
word for this is "gradually"-- reinforce behaviors that
approximate or come close to the target behavior. So in other words, shaping isn't
just performing a headstand. It's that process of learning
to perform the headstand, which we're going to go
through in a minute. But the important
thing to consider is what is the target behavior? Before you can shape
a behavior, you have to determine what's
the target behavior. So in this example, we're
going to use the headstand. So let's say this is you. Here you are. And ultimately, your
goal or target behavior is to perform a headstand. So we're going to learn this
successively or gradually by reinforcing behaviors that
lead up to the headstand. So maybe you're going to like
a yoga class to learn this. And the first thing
we want to reinforce is maybe just
showing up to class. You took the time to block
out time in your schedule, to get dressed and drive
over to this yoga studio. There's a lot of things
and factors involved which is showing up to class. And showing up to
class is, if you think about it, a very
important aspect of learning to perform a headstand, at least
if you're taking a yoga class. But after a while,
that's not going to be enough obviously as your
goal is to perform a headstand. And just showing
up to class isn't going to make you
learn it necessarily. So eventually, that's
not going to be enough. And so next you want
to reinforce maybe putting your hands on the mat. And I'm told this position
is called a down dog. So we're going to reinforce
putting your hands on the mat. And of course, there going to be
several factors involved here, like making sure your
legs are straight, and your arms are positioned
in the right place, and your shoulders are
positioned in the correct spot. There's a lot of factors
if you think about it than just contorting your
body in this position. And so you want to
learn do this properly so you don't have any injuries
and so you can ultimately be able to perform your target
behavior of doing a headstand. But again, eventually
this isn't going to be enough because the goal
here is to perform a headstand. So next, you're going to
reinforce a behavior that approximates or comes even
closer to a headstand. And let's say in
this case, you're going to reinforce placing
your forearms on the mat. So now that you're in this
position where your feet are on the mat, and your
elbows are down, and your forearms are
on the mat, that's pretty close to
performing a headstand. At least it's closer than
just showing up to class. But next, you're going to have
to reinforce the behavior of, let's say, lifting your
legs up in the air, which will lead to a headstand. So eventually the
forearms on the mat are no longer going
to be reinforced. And we'll say you're going to
reinforce lifting your legs up in the air, which will
lead to the headstand. And so this is the
behavior you want to reinforce, lifting legs. And this is actually
the target behavior. But as you can see, this guy
didn't just show up to class and perform the headstand. They had to gradually
or successively learn to perform the target behavior. Now, I've been putting
green check marks here to represent reinforcement. And reinforcement, it
can be a physical object like money or prizes. But it can also be
something as intangible, like praise for
instance, hearing the yoga instructor say, great
job or you're doing a good job. Keep it up. Praise is also a reinforcer. But I drew this
out because I want to represent the
process of shaping. Shaping isn't just
performing the behavior. It's gradually
reinforcing behaviors that lead up to or approximate
the target behavior. And shaping is a
process of learning that isn't just used in humans. It's also used in animals. And that's how animal
trainers have a job. Their whole job
revolves around shaping the behaviors of animals. So when you see that seal
balance a ball on its nose, it didn't just
naturally do that. It learned it through the
animal trainer successively reinforcing the
behaviors that lead up to balancing a ball on its nose. The same process
has occurred when you see people who
show you their dog, who can shake hands or
roll over on command. The dog didn't learn it
through taking notes or reading a book on rolling over. It learned it by being
successively reinforced until it ultimately
performed the target behavior that their
owner had in mind. So this is shaping.