Tony's mother wants him to learn to play with other children. She begins by offering him a quarter whenever he plays with other children nearby, even if he plays by himself. Later, she gives him a quarter only when he plays on the same playground equipment other children are playing on. Finally, she gives him a quarter only if he actually plays with the other children. Tony's mother is demonstrating how to use
A) classical conditioning.
B) second-order conditioning.
C) shaping.
D) stimulus generalization.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Tony's mother is using shaping, which is the process of gradually rewarding closer and closer approximations of a desired behavior until the desired behavior is achieved. In this case, she is rewarding Tony for playing with other children in a gradual way, starting with any nearby children and then progressing to playing on the same equipment and finally playing with the other children. This is an example of shaping because Tony's mother is rewarding behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior of playing with other children.

Tony's Mother Wants Him to Learn to Play with Other