Shaping of Behavior

- An animal on a cage may take a very long time to figure out that pressing a lever will produce
food. To accomplish such behavior, successive approximation of the behavior are rewarded until the
animal learns the association between the lever and the food reward. To begin shaping, the animal may be
rewarded for simply turning in the direction of the lever, then for moving toward the lever, for brushing
against the lever, and finally for pressing the lever.
Behavior chaining
-comes about when a series of steps are needed to be learned. The animal would master each step in
sequence until the entire sequence is learned. This can be applied to a child being taught to tie a shoelace.
The child can be given reinforcement ( reward) until the entire process of trying the shoelace is learned.

Experiment in Alberta
Watson applied classical conditioning in his experiment concerning Alberta, a young child and a white
rat. In the beginning, Alberta was not afraid of the rat, but Watson made a sudden loud noise each time
Alberta touched the rat became Alberta was frightened by the loud noise,he soon became conditional to
fear and avoid the rat, Later the child’s response was generalized to other small animals now, he was also
afraid of small animals. Watson then “ extinguished” or made of the child “unlearn” fear by showing the
rat without the loud noise.