Question

brian has been teaching his son to shoot a basketball correctly. initially, brian lowered the backboard and used a smaller ball to increase the chances his son would shoot the ball correctly. once his son begins having success, brian begins to raise the backboard and use a larger ball. this is an example of:

Answer 1

Brian used shaping, a behavioral psychology technique, to teach his son to shoot a basketball by starting with easier tasks and gradually increasing difficulty as his son improved.

Step-by-step explanation:

Brian teaching his son to shoot a basketball correctly by gradually increasing the difficulty is an example of shaping, a concept in behavioral psychology. Shaping involves reinforcing successive approximations of a desired behavior until the desired behavior is achieved. In this case, Brian started with a lowered backboard and smaller ball to make it easier for his son to shoot correctly, and then gradually increased the challenge by raising the backboard and using a larger ball as his son's skills improved.

This method demonstrates the principle that humans learn behaviors through conditioning, which can be rewarded incrementally. It exemplifies the way in which complex skills are often learned in stages, starting with simpler tasks and moving towards more challenging ones, with each step building upon the previous successes.