Shaping Delineated

The discussion today was great. The students did a really good job on it, and had some really nice insights into how this works in everyday behavior.

So, the principles involved in shaping are reinforcement and extinction: Reinforce the first approximation (any response that in any way resembles the final, target response), and then place that response on extinction. The extinction burst should result in a closer approximation (this is due to an increase in variability on the part of the organism), which should lead to the next approximation being reinforced.

Here is a fairly good video of a pigeon who has been "taught to read". You can see the feeder mechanism working at the side of the operant chamber, the cumulative recorder, and of course Skinner explaining intermittent reinforcement.

If you have any good videos that you think would be relevant, please send them along!