Mrs. Martin, a third-grade teacher, is instructing cursive writing. At first, she reinforces even crude attempts to reproduce letters with an encouraging word; as time goes on, though, she reinforces only well-formed letters. By reinforcing progressively better attempts at writing letters, Mrs. Martin is using:
A)discrimination training
B)higher-order conditioning
C)stimulus control training
D)shaping

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Shaping involves reinforcing successive approximations toward a desired behavior. Mrs. Martin is using shaping by initially reinforcing any attempt to write letters in cursive and gradually requiring the letters to be more accurately formed before providing reinforcement.

Mrs Martin, a Third-Grade Teacher, Is Instructing Cursive Writing