Eric and I ventured out late yesterday evening for our inaugural training in running. Our goal is to be able to run 5K. We are following a program that will shape our running and endurance to run a 5K.

We made it one block before it started to rain.  We looked at each other as if to say, “Keep going?” and we did.  And then it started to pour - sheets of rain, pouring.  I think neither one of us wanted to give up so early on our first attempt but we were soaked.  Water ran faster between our legs than we could move them.  

We did not run very far. The rain won this race.  I hope the loss does not function as punishment to stop us entirely.         

One of the things I love about the behaviour analytic approach to learning is that it assumes learning is possible no matter the person’s age, cognitive level, diagnosis or life circumstances. We engage in new behaviours every day; shaped largely by our past experiences, some slightly altered social and environmental conditions and a set of changing expectations.  

Shaping is a process whereby smaller approximations of a larger goal or behaviour are reinforced in succession until the end behaviour is reached (Copper, Heron & Hewart, 2007). Essentially, this means giving credit for the “baby steps” someone accomplishes on their way towards learning a more complex skill.  You can shape a variety of dimensions of behaviour - from what it looks like, its frequency, duration, intensity and fluency.

Shaping is the science behind such skills as learning how to walk and talk, training in a sport, learning how to read, learning how to drive…the list goes on. We don’t set the high jump bar too high and fault someone for not being able to clear the bar just as we don’t give a young child a book and expect her to read it from beginning to end. Instead we set a criterion that is more realistic for the person to achieve. At the same time, the social and physical environment is arranged so that it is available for and responsive to earlier forms of a behaviour in the form of reinforcement (e.g., using a T-ball stand when teaching how to swing a baseball bat ensures greater chance of making contact with the ball). Without these earlier accommodations made, a learner will become easily frustrated and might give-up on acquiring the skill. As the skill is developed, others and/or the environment expect just a little bit more of the person. Now reinforcement is only received if the person is able to meet the new expectation (e.g., now practicing our baseball swings with someone throwing the ball from 10 feet away). This continues until the desired behaviour or skill is demonstrated.

The key to shaping is changing those expectations ever so slightly so that it is highly likely that the person will still succeed. If you set the expectations too high and the person does not meet the new criterion, they may experience frustration and no longer try.

Teachers, parents, caregivers, therapists etc. carry out shaping procedures as part of their guidance and support to various learners. Skills that were once assumed to be unattainable may just be possible with planned attention to and teaching of approximations using this process. Who says someone can’t learn? It is us that can guide a learner towards achieving new skills and behaviours! When we re-arrange task materials so that the learner is likely to attend to them and/or make use of them we are assisting in the shaping process. Notice too the reinforcement and encouragement for “trying” or “almost getting it” we are so apt at providing. Some of us are just natural born shapers without even giving much thought to what we are doing.

Our behaviours are shaped when others expect just a little bit more from us. Remember your first few weeks on the job?  Hopefully your employer started you off with a small list of expectations while checking in on you to provide feedback that it was going well.  Months later (and after demonstrating that you’ve met their expectations) perhaps your boss is now assigning you a special project that takes your skill set to the next level. Reinforcement awaits if you’re up for the challenge.

In the coming weeks I will go through this very experience as my career path exits from one highway and onto another. I have recently accepted an offer to work with a school board as an ABA facilitator. I will be immersed in school board culture, policies, relationships and expectations and I will acquire a slightly different set of skills than what I’ve demonstrated in my current role. Expectations will be different but perfectly attainable given my past experience and the supports I know I’ll receive walking in. I’m ready to be shaped into my new role and I look forward to shaping new ideas and processes based on ABA.       

References:

Cooper, J.O., Heron, T.E. & Heward, W.L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Related Posts:

Play Ball!  http://behaviouristatplay.tumblr.com/post/5295382925/this-was-taken-as-we-were-shaping-my-nephews

Survival through shaping:  http://behaviouristatplay.tumblr.com/post/12308562036/survival-of-the-species-through-operant-conditioning

Operant conditioning is described by Skinner (1974) as a process where behaviours that are immediately followed by access to reinforcement are more likely to occur again and behaviours that are followed by aversive consequences, known as punishers, are diminished.  The survival value of operant conditioning is found within an organism’s ability to learn new behaviours in new and changing environments so that it may continue to survive (Skinner, 1974).  Skinner (1974) stated that an organism’s “survival may be said to be contingent upon certain kinds of behaviour” (p. 41) and made example of mating, protecting one’s self from harm and caring for one’s young.  Some of these ‘survival’ behaviours are initially a result of reflexes or innate behaviours, but contingencies of reinforcement found within the environment then result in these behaviours being maintained through the operant conditioning process (Skinner, 1974; 1981).  When the environment changes, it is operant conditioning that causes organisms to develop new behaviours so that they may continue to receive reinforcers such as food, water, sex and absence of physical harm (Skinner, 1981; 1984).  Skinner (1975) referred to this specific process of operant conditioning as shaping, where an organism’s behaviours already under operant control of reinforcement are changed slightly so that the changed behaviour is reinforced.  In order for an organism to survive in the new environment it must change its current repertoire of behaviours so that these new sets of behaviours now access reinforcements available in the environment (Skinner, 1975).  For example, early North American settlers living on vast fields acquired skills such as sowing, tilling and harvesting/gathering.  They learned these behaviours because they were reinforced through the delivery of food to eat.  Today, some of North America’s environment looks very different with large urban dwellings, roads and grocery stores.  People living in these environments still require food; however, sowing and tilling are no longer possible, and food is more likely to be found at a grocery store.  As such, the skills involved in getting one’s self to the grocery store now have survival value because they are reinforced through access to food.

 Operant conditioning not only has survival value at the individual level, but also at the species level.  Individuals who are successful in adapting their behaviours in new environments are more likely to successfully mate and then teach their offspring their acquired repertoire of behaviours which are conducive to the offspring surviving; and that cycle continues.  Skinner (1981) refers to this as ‘selection by consequence’.  What has evolved then from operant conditioning is simply “an organism” (Skinner, 1974; p. 50); or, a person and his behaviours.  While others may cite that what has evolved is a more intelligent, more aware human species, Skinner (1974) contends that contingencies of reinforcement occurring simultaneously with contingencies of survival are responsible for the advancement of the species.  We did not inherit our parent’s intelligence or an ability to ‘know how to survive’; rather, we were born with the susceptibility for our early, innate behaviours to be reinforced and subsequently shaped according to the contingencies of reinforcement found without our environment (Skinner, 1974; 1981).  In other words:  the human species has not evolved; rather, the environment, its delivery of reinforcement and the human behaviours which access reinforcement have.  Should our environment remain static, so would our behaviours.

References:

Skinner, B.F.  (1974).  About behaviorism.  New York, NY: Vintage Books.

 Skinner, B.F.  (1975).  The shaping of phylogenic behavior.  Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 24(1), 117-120.

Skinner, B.F.  (1981).  Selection by consequences.  Science, 213(4507), 501-504.

Skinner, B.F.  (1984).  The evolution of behavior.  Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 41(2), 217-221.