During the Korean War, captured U.S. soldiers were persuaded to cooperate with their captors one small step at a time, with reinforcements for each step. This procedure resembles which principle of operant conditioning?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This procedure described in the question is an example of shaping, which involves reinforcing successive approximations towards a desired behavior. The captors were reinforcing the soldiers for cooperating with them, gradually increasing the level of cooperation they required. This is similar to how an experimenter might reinforce an animal for making small steps towards performing a desired task. The other options, fixed-interval schedules, fixed-ratio schedules, and conditioned reinforcement, do not accurately describe the situation described in the question.

During the Korean War, Captured U