Darren is trying to get his young son to eat his peas. At first, Darren praises him whenever he moves his fork near the peas; af
ter the child does this reliably, Darren praises him only if he actually puts a pea on his fork; then Darren's praise is only given when the child puts a pea on his fork and moves the fork toward his mouth. Darren carries on this way until the child eats his peas. Darren is using _____ to get his son to eat his peas. A. the matching law
B. a token economy
C. shaping
D. chaining
Darren is using C. shaping to get his son to eat his peas.
Explanation:
Shaping is a tactic used within Operant Conditioning, which is understood as the process for a subject to <em>acquire a certain behavior</em> through reinforcements.
Shaping occurs when the reinforcements occur during a successive pattern of the behavior, not only whenever a behavior is present.
We can see it clearly in this example; Darren <em>slowly starts to praise </em>(reinforce) his son's behaviors, <em>gradually moving</em> from moving his fork towards the peas until he moves the fork with the pea to its mouth.
