Shaping in behavior therapy is characterized by...

• A. Reinforcing every response regardless of closeness
• B. Reinforcing only the final target after perfect performance
• C. Expecting closer approximations to the target prior to reinforcement
• D. Withholding reinforcement entirely

Answer: (C)

Shaping builds a complex behavior by reinforcing closer and closer approximations to the target. The idea is that you reward the learner not for one perfect final result right away, but for making progress toward it. Each successful response that more closely resembles the desired behavior becomes eligible for reinforcement, and the criterion for reinforcement is gradually raised to push the learner further along the sequence of steps toward the goal. For example, you might first reward any vocalization, then reward patterns that sound more like the target, then reward longer or more accurate syllables, and so on until the full target behavior is produced. This approach focuses reinforcement on incremental progress, guiding the learner step by step toward the final behavior.

Reinforcing every response regardless of closeness wouldn’t steer the learner toward the specific target; it would reinforce actions that may be far from the goal. Waiting for a perfect performance before giving reinforcement would stall progress, since the shaping process relies on rewarding successive, imperfect-but-improving attempts. Withholding reinforcement entirely would prevent any learning from occurring.