Final answer:
The process of shaping uses successive approximations to achieve a desired behavior, which is a critical technique in operant conditioning as demonstrated by B. F. Skinner's experiments.
Step-by-step explanation:
The behavior modification process that uses successive approximations of a desired terminal behavior is known as shaping. This technique is often used in operant conditioning, a method of learning that employs rewards or punishments after a behavior is performed to influence the frequency of that behavior. The shaping process involves the following steps:
Reinforce any response that resembles the desired behavior.
- Then reinforce the response that more closely resembles the desired behavior, while ceasing to reinforce the previously reinforced response.
- Next, begin to reinforce the response that even more closely resembles the desired behavior.
- Continue to reinforce closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.
- Finally, only reinforce the desired behavior itself.
B. F. Skinner extensively used shaping to teach animals to perform a variety of behaviors that they would not ordinarily exhibit, such as teaching pigeons to play a game of ping pong.