Imagine that you have decided to use shaping to teach a rat to press a lever.For shaping to be effective,you should be sure to withhold any reinforcement until the rat completely depresses the lever.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Shaping involves reinforcing successive approximations towards the desired behavior. It would be counterproductive to withhold reinforcement until the rat completely depresses the lever, as that is too advanced of a behavior to start with. Instead, the trainer would start by reinforcing any behavior that involves the rat interacting with the lever, such as touching it or being near it, and then gradually shaping towards the final behavior of completely depressing the lever.

Imagine That You Have Decided to Use Shaping to Teach