Question

Sarah wants to teach her cat Fluffy to use his paw to turn on the tv. Sara differentially reinforces Fluffy's behavior of being within one foot of the tv, being within one foot and facing the tv, when Fluffy touches the tv with his paw, when he touches the on button with his paw, and finally when Fluffy hits the on button with his paw. This is an example of using shaping to:

a) change a dimension of an existing behavior
b) generate a novel behavior
c) increase an existing behavior
d) reinstate a previous behavior

Answer 1

Answer: The correct answer is B: Generate a novel behavior.

Explanation: Shaping is a type of differential reinforcement of succesive aproximations, and the goal is for the person, (in this case a cat name Fluffy) to exhibit a target behavior (Use his paw to turn on the Tv).

Turning on the tv with his paw is not a behavior Fluffy has, so Sarah reinforce succesive aproximations until fluffy exhibits a novel behavior.

In conclusion, the answer is B, in this case the shaping is used in order to generate a novel behavior.