Mary's parents want her to put her books in her bookcase. At first, they praise her for putting the books together in one pile. Then they praise her for getting the books on the same side of the room as the bookcase. When she gets the books on top of the bookcase, she gets praise. Finally, her parents praise her when she puts her books in the bookcase. This is an example of

Question

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This is an example of shaping. Shaping is the process of reinforcing successive approximations of a desired behavior until the target behavior is achieved. In this scenario, Mary's parents reinforce her behavior by giving praise at each step of the process until she achieves the final goal of putting her books in the bookcase.

Mary's Parents Want Her to Put Her Books in Her