Teaching through shaping

Shaping—it is important not to confuse it with modeling—is a very useful behavioral technique for training in new activities.

On many occasions we assume that, by giving guidelines for a task, the person in front of us will understand and know how to carry it out. This is not always the case, and is usually a source of conflict, since usually It is judged that the person did not want to do it, when they simply did not know how.

Shaping is typically used with children, but its implementation can also be effective with adults. Being based on reinforcements and punishments, it can be just as powerful with some as with others.

What does molding consist of?

Molding is a procedure that seeks the development of behaviors that the individual does not know how to do. This development is achieved through successive approximations to the final behavior to be achieved. As these approximations get closer to the final behavior, the previous ones become extinct—or stop reinforcing.

Usually a target behavior is defined, but without trying to teach it from the beginning. Behaviors begin to be reinforced—whose occurrence rate must be greater than 0—that have some kind of relationship with the final behavior. This behavior does not have to be the same, but it must have something in common topographically and functionally.

Once that first approach is chosen, it will be reinforced when it appears. When it is reinforced, it is normal for it to occur more frequently, since the individual will want to obtain its reinforcement. Finally, this It will no longer be reinforced to the detriment of behavior that is closer to the final desired behavior.

Natural shaping: the emergence of language

An example of natural molding in human beings is the acquisition of language in babies. When a child begins to babble his first sounds, parents usually get excited and therefore reinforce those small advances.

Babbling is normally rewarded with love and attention, until, naturally, the child begins to develop his or her first phonemes. If instead of babbling, the child pronounces syllables like “ma” or “pa”, these will be reinforced.

Babbling will no longer be as important, and the reinforcement of attention and affection will not be obtained from it. This means that reinforcement becomes increasingly demanding. This happens successively until the child learns to speak appropriately.

It would be crazy to try to get the child to recite verses by John Keats from the time he is an infant. In the same way, certain actions that are often required of children They should be taught with modeling, with approximations, and not in other more direct ways.

What can be taught or modified through shaping?

As mentioned previously, shaping is very useful when you want to teach new behaviors. This not only refers to behaviors that the person is completely unaware of, but also those that the person does wrong. Thus, behavior is susceptible to being modified in five different aspects:

Topography: you want to change the specific way in which the individual performs an action. Although you know the behavior, you seek to modify the specific movements that intervene in it. For example, when a person skates with short steps to avoid falling, and you want them to start taking longer strides.Frequency: Shaping is also useful for increasing or reducing the number of times a known behavior is carried out.Duration: This technique is also useful for reducing or increasing the duration of a behavior. For example, the amount of time a child sits at a table studying or in class can be shaped.Latency: Latency is the time between the appearance of a stimulus and the emission of a response. A behavior can be shaped so that it appears as quickly as possible when faced with a specific stimulus. This could apply when potty training children alone.Intensity: You can shape the force with which a behavior is emitted. For example, in the case of a girl with few friends or social isolation, her tone of voice can be molded through successive approaches so that little by little it becomes more intense.

Factors that influence its effectiveness

Specifying a goal

For shaping to be done correctly, it is important to define the final behavior that you want to obtain. The definition must include parameters such as topography, intensity or latency so that the approaches are made correctly.

For example, the behavior to be achieved may be that Tessa, when she arrives at class, takes the material she needs out of her backpack, places it on the table and sits down to wait for the teacher.

Establishing a starting point

It becomes very relevant to study the person’s individual repertoire to see which behaviors are similar to the final behavior. At the same time, it must be verified that that behavior appears enough to be reinforced. The behavior must be similar either topographically (in form) or functionally to the final behavior.

In the same example, a first approximation of Tessa might be that she leaves her backpack on the seat and runs around the class. Pretending him not to run initially can be counterproductive or even useless.

Therefore, you can start by reinforcing that they leave their backpack in its place instead of throwing it on the ground or taking it with them. That could be a first approximation that you already have in your repertoire, and that appears every morning.

Approach planning

It is very helpful to plan what the distance will be between the approaches and the speed at which you will go. There are no guidelines for this, so the person administering the shaping must understand the characteristics of the subject.

Caution must also be exercised when choosing intermediate approaches and their number. Sometimes people respond more slowly than we would like, but we have to be flexible and adapt to their processes.

Tessa’s intermediate approaches might be to leave the backpack on the seat, open it, and take out the case; When she knows how to do that, she not only takes out the case but also dumps her pens on the table; Once established, she not only dumps them, but also selects those that she is going to use… So on.

Ensure reinforcement

There are no guidelines for the number of enhancers or their topology. However, we must be very clear that it is important to reinforce the approach many times until we know that it is well established. It is not enough to reinforce once and move directly to another approach. Hurry is not good.

It is also important not to reinforce excessively. If the reinforcements are excessive, not so much in quantity, but maintained over time, It will be more difficult for more advanced behaviors to appear.

Finally, if the step from one approach to another has been too great and the person does not know how to do it, there is no need to be afraid. go back, reinforce and propose another closer approach.

Patience instead of punishment

Although it is a technique that requires patience, it is postulated as a beneficial tool to teach behaviors without having to resort to frustration or wrong value judgments. Adults, as well as children, may not know how to reach a final behavior if the path leading to it is not divided into parts.

Shaping allows teaching in a clear, concise way, little by little, resolving doubts and in a safe and controlled way. It does not require Herculean efforts since they are done little by little, until, without realizing it, knowing how to do what he was having such a hard time learning.

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