Practice Quiz

EPPP Psychology

Category - Biological Bases of Behavior

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A dog trainer is teaching a dog to open a door by pulling on a rope that is attached to it. He first teaches the dog to play with the rope and rewards the dog with food every time he touches the rope. He then rewards the dog every time he pulls the rope hard. Finally, he rewards the dog after the pulls to rope when it is attached to the door. The training method that the trainer used is called:
  1. Shaping
  2. Backward chaining
  3. Forward chaining
  4. Token economy
Explanation
Answer: A - This training method is called shaping.

In shaping, the animal (or human) being trained is first rewarded for successive approximation to the wanted behavior. Slowly, the behavior being rewarded is changed to be closer to the target behavior. Chaining is used to train complex behavior that requires many steps. Token economy is used to reinforce desired behavior by letting a person or animal collect secondary reinforces that he or she can exchange for desired items.
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