To teach a tiger to jump through a flaming hoop, the tiger is first reinforced for jumping up on a certain pedestal, then for leaping from that pedestal to another. Next, the tiger has to jump through a hoop between the pedestals to get the reward. Finally, the hoop is set afire and the tiger must jump through it to get the reward. This is an example of ________.
A) secondary learning
B) modeling
C) negative reinforcement
D) shaping

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is an example of shaping, which is the process of reinforcing small steps or successive approximations toward a desired behavior. By reinforcing the tiger for initially jumping on a pedestal, then jumping from one pedestal to another, and finally jumping through a flaming hoop, the behavior is gradually shaped into the final desired behavior.

To Teach a Tiger to Jump Through a Flaming Hoop