Alexa Royle
April 19, 2014
Psych 100 Wede
Extra Credit Blog Post – Shaping and Successive Approximations
Operant conditioning is a type of learning that forms associations between behaviors and the resulting events or consequences. Shaping is a type of operant conditioning that uses reinforcers to guide behavior closer towards a desired behavior. Shaping occurs through successive approximations that guide the target through incremental steps, ultimately leading to the desired goal.
Shaping and the technique of successive approximations have played a vital role in my family, specifically through the training of my dog, Mango. When we first got Mango, she was rambunctious and untrained, as all new puppies are. My dad and I decided that we would start her training by teaching her to sit, lie down, and roll over – the stereotypical first commands. We began by commanding her to “sit” in a stern voice. At first, she didn’t understand what to do so we would have to physically push her backside to the ground. When her backside would hit the ground we would reward her with a treat, which was our form of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement methods work to strengthen desired behavior by presenting a positive stimulus – the dog treat. After pushing her backside down multiple times, Mango finally caught on and would start sitting down on her own when we would say, “sit” so she could receive the treat. Once she had the “sit” command down, we moved to “lay down”. Once again, we would have to push her down on the ground and feed her a treat for a few times until she got the gist of it and could do it on her own. Next we moved to the “roll over” command using the same methods. After about a week of using the successive approximations and positive reinforcement, Mango was successively able to sit, lie down, and roll over on her own.
This anecdote relates directly back to what we recently learned in our Psych 100 class. My family used the operant conditioning method of shaping to train my dog through successive approximations. As one could assume, the successive approximations were the acts of first sitting down, then lying down, and finally rolling over. The use of these successive approximations made it easier for Mango to understand what she was supposed to do rather than going straight from standing up to rolling over. Another concept from class that was closely related with her training was the use of the positive reinforcement of presenting her with a treat when she successfully completed a command. The positive reinforcement clued her as to when she was doing something right, therefore strengthening the behavior so she could get the tasty snack that she desired. I’m sure that this story is extremely relatable to many other families with trained pets, as operant conditioning is one of the most successful and widely used methods in the training of animals.
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This is completely similar to the training of my dog, Maggie. When we first got Maggie, it was a slow process to slowly train her to pee outside. As an 3 month old puppy, she would undoubtedly urinate all over the kitchen floor. Soon enough, we were able to shape her behavior to get her to pee on a ‘wee wee pad’ (a disposable sheet place on the floor to potty train dogs) by giving her a treat every time she did it. Eventually, we graduated to giving her a treat every time she peed outside, and not when she peed inside (even just on the wee wee pad). All in all, we were able to shape Maggie’s behavior (in the operant conditioning sense) by graduating her through levels of where to pee through the use of rewards, until she ultimately learned to only pee outside in the grass.
Although I have never had an animal that I had to train, it is still amazing to understand the principles of shaping in relation to animals and humans. When we were children, it never seemed like our parents and teachers were shaping our education and lives like what happens to dogs but it is similar. I know I personally enjoyed receiving stickers in school for doing something well or at home for chores. These stickers in turn became a token economy in school and at home as my parents and teachers conditioned me to act and think in different ways by pushing me each time to strive for the next level.
I enjoyed this response, as I had to do the same thing with my dog. We got her last summer and like most puppies she was not potty trained. To keep her I had to teach her how to use the bathroom outside. So, I would use shaping and every time she used the bathroom outside I would give her a treat(positive reinforcement). We also would use punishment by yelling at her if she peed in the house. She eventually understood what she had to do. After we finally taught her to go outside, I taught her how to ring a bell every time she needs to go out. We tied a bell to our front door and before she would go out I would ring the bell for her. It took her a couple weeks but now every time she needs to use the bathroom she rings the bell and we let her out.
I think the idea of being able to condition a human or animal is a really interesting idea and is very beneficial to learn about. I was thinking back to the days when I was training my dog and the examples from the book about shaping. We decided to train her to jump through our arms or a hoop. At first, we trained her to sit and respond to treats, then walk through our arms, then to jump as we raised them up, rewarding her each step of the process. It sheds light on a lot of ways that we inadvertently train our dogs, too, such as conditioning them to beg for treats or food from the table, versus steering them from that behavior. It is interesting also to see dog trainers, like the Dog Whisperer, really hone in on these skills of conditioning animals to respond in a way that makes them easy to live with. It is a very fascinating field of study.
I felt like I was reading my own story as I was reading yours! As you mentioned, this type of training for a dog is so common for families to do simply because it works! Who knew that training our beloved pets actually leads back to concepts in psychology. Pets can be very similar to young children in the sense that they will do pretty much anything if they know that a reward or a treat of some sort is involved! Whether it is a dog treat or a lollipop, positive reinforcement is a great way for pets and kids to learn appropriate behaviors at an early age.
I really enjoyed reading your response. I actually wrote about something very similar. I had the same experience as you when my brother, sister and I tried to train my dog. She was a crazy puppy at first, but my parents told us we had to train her if we wanted to keep her. We were also able to use successive approximations and shaping to train her to sit, lay down and eventually to roll over. I wonder if we could use these techniques to further their training and teach them to do some crazy things. Based on the videos we watched in class, it seems as though animals can be trained to do basically anything as long as they are trained well enough!