Final answer:
The technique where student performance is incrementally reinforced to achieve more complex tasks is called shaping, a component of operant conditioning.
Step-by-step explanation:
The technique in which student performance is reinforced so the student will continue to perform more complex tasks in the sequence is called shaping. This method is part of operant conditioning, a learning process developed by B.F. Skinner, where behaviors are reinforced to increase the likelihood of them being repeated, or punished to decrease their occurrence. In shaping, not only the final desired behavior is reinforced but also the successive approximations that lead up to it.
Here are the steps usually followed in shaping:
- Reinforce any response that resembles the desired behavior.
- Then reinforce the response that more closely resembles the desired behavior, phasing out the previous reinforcement.
- Next, reinforce a response that even more closely resembles the desired behavior.
- Continue this process with closer approximations of the desired behavior.
- Finally, reinforce only the desired behavior itself.
An example of shaping could involve a teacher rewarding a student with praise for each step they correctly complete in a complex math problem, gradually leading the student to solve the entire problem independently.