Operant conditioning: Shaping - Biology Video Lecture - NEET

If someone were to say I want
to learn to do a headstand,
you might think of the headstand
as some sort of activity
or behavior that
they're going to learn
through practicing headstands.
But I want to emphasize a
certain word in the sentence,
and that's "learn."
Oftentimes when we
think about learning,
we think of things
like learning facts.
For instance, if
I were to tell you
to learn that the
capital of Ohio
was Columbus, if you
didn't know that,
you might learn it by
writing it down over and over
and say, OK, Columbus, Ohio.
Columbus, Ohio.
Or maybe you'll make
a flash card with Ohio
on one side and
Columbus on the other.
And that's the type of learning
where you're learning facts.
But learning a
headstand, there really
isn't any note cards, or flash
cards, or notes involved.
It's more a matter of
practicing the behavior
of performing a headstand.
But if you're like me,
performing a headstand
isn't something that
I can do naturally.
Someone who can
perform a headstand
typically learned to
do it through practice.
And that learning
through practice idea
has a specific name in
operant conditioning.
And the term for this type
of learning is "shaping."
And shaping is something
that you are already
very familiar with.
But maybe you've never
heard the term before.
The idea of shaping is that
you successively or gradually
reinforce behaviors
that lead up to
or approximate the
target behavior.
So you successively-- or another
word for this is "gradually"--
reinforce behaviors that
approximate or come close
to the target behavior.
So in other words, shaping isn't
just performing a headstand.
It's that process of learning
to perform the headstand, which
we're going to go
through in a minute.
But the important
thing to consider
is what is the target behavior?
Before you can shape
a behavior, you
have to determine what's
the target behavior.
So in this example, we're
going to use the headstand.
So let's say this is you.
Here you are.
And ultimately, your
goal or target behavior
is to perform a headstand.
So we're going to learn this
successively or gradually
by reinforcing behaviors that
lead up to the headstand.
So maybe you're going to like
a yoga class to learn this.
And the first thing
we want to reinforce
is maybe just
showing up to class.
You took the time to block
out time in your schedule,
to get dressed and drive
over to this yoga studio.
There's a lot of things
and factors involved
which is showing up to class.
And showing up to
class is, if you
think about it, a very
important aspect of learning
to perform a headstand, at least
if you're taking a yoga class.
But after a while,
that's not going
to be enough obviously as your
goal is to perform a headstand.
And just showing
up to class isn't
going to make you
learn it necessarily.
So eventually, that's
not going to be enough.
And so next you want
to reinforce maybe
putting your hands on the mat.
And I'm told this position
is called a down dog.
So we're going to reinforce
putting your hands on the mat.
And of course, there going to be
several factors involved here,
like making sure your
legs are straight,
and your arms are positioned
in the right place,
and your shoulders are
positioned in the correct spot.
There's a lot of factors
if you think about it
than just contorting your
body in this position.
And so you want to
learn do this properly
so you don't have any injuries
and so you can ultimately
be able to perform your target
behavior of doing a headstand.
But again, eventually
this isn't going
to be enough because the goal
here is to perform a headstand.
So next, you're going to
reinforce a behavior that
approximates or comes even
closer to a headstand.
And let's say in
this case, you're
going to reinforce placing
your forearms on the mat.
So now that you're in this
position where your feet are
on the mat, and your
elbows are down,
and your forearms are
on the mat, that's
pretty close to
performing a headstand.
At least it's closer than
just showing up to class.
But next, you're going to have
to reinforce the behavior of,
let's say, lifting your
legs up in the air, which
will lead to a headstand.
So eventually the
forearms on the mat
are no longer going
to be reinforced.
And we'll say you're going to
reinforce lifting your legs up
in the air, which will
lead to the headstand.
And so this is the
behavior you want
to reinforce, lifting legs.
And this is actually
the target behavior.
But as you can see, this guy
didn't just show up to class
and perform the headstand.
They had to gradually
or successively learn
to perform the target behavior.
Now, I've been putting
green check marks here
to represent reinforcement.
And reinforcement, it
can be a physical object
like money or prizes.
But it can also be
something as intangible,
like praise for
instance, hearing
the yoga instructor say, great
job or you're doing a good job.
Keep it up.
Praise is also a reinforcer.
But I drew this
out because I want
to represent the
process of shaping.
Shaping isn't just
performing the behavior.
It's gradually
reinforcing behaviors
that lead up to or approximate
the target behavior.
And shaping is a
process of learning
that isn't just used in humans.
It's also used in animals.
And that's how animal
trainers have a job.
Their whole job
revolves around shaping
the behaviors of animals.
So when you see that seal
balance a ball on its nose,
it didn't just
naturally do that.
It learned it through the
animal trainer successively
reinforcing the
behaviors that lead up
to balancing a ball on its nose.
The same process
has occurred when
you see people who
show you their dog, who
can shake hands or
roll over on command.
The dog didn't learn it
through taking notes or reading
a book on rolling over.
It learned it by being
successively reinforced
until it ultimately
performed the target
behavior that their
owner had in mind.
So this is shaping.