Question

A rat in a Skinner box is reinforced with a food pellet only if the rat moves close to the lever. Next reinforcement is withheld until the rat stands on its hind legs, then until the rat touches the lever, and finally, until the rat presses the lever. This example best illustrates

a) latent learning
b) shaping
c) modeling
d) generalization

Answer 1

The answer is b) shaping.

Step-by-step explanation:

In this processs, the subject is exposed to a gradual change of stimuli in order to shape its behaviour. This is done through succesive approximations, which means the subject's behaviour is reinforced according to slightly different tasks.

For example, a rat is reinforced only after turning a lever. After it does the task regularly, the expected behaviour will be slightly different (e.g. reinforced only after standing at a certain distance from the lever).

Answer 2

Answer:b) shaping

Step-by-step explanation:

When an organism is taught a new behavior by gradually reinforcing behavior that is in close approximation to the desired behavior, until the behavior is completely learnt. The desired behaviour here is that the rat must eventual touch the lever but to get there small approximate behavior are slowly reinforced starting with first getting it close to the lever first , then when it has leaned that it can then be taught to stand until the desired behavior can be finally introduced.

So a subject is slowly and slowly taught behaviours that may lead it to the final required behavior.