A ski instructor is teaching a class of beginning skiers how to ...

[big1devin]

A ski instructor is teaching a class of beginning skiers how to do a snowplow turn. She first teaches her students to stand with the fronts of their skis together and the backs of their skis far apart. She then has her students bend their knees slightly and lean forward in this snowplow position. After the students can do these two things successfully, the instructor has them add more behaviors to the sequence: gliding across the side of a gentle slope in a snowplow, putting their body weight on the downhill ski, gradually turning downhill, and so on. The instructor praises her students each time they successfully add a new movement to the sequence. In behaviorist terminology, the procedure that the ski instructor is using can best be described as:
 
  a. the Premack principle
  b. chaining
  c. a differential schedule of reinforcement
  d. higher-level conditioning
 
  Note: Questions 39 and 40 both refer to the same situation.

Question 2

Imagine that you want to improve a distractible child's ability to sit still and listen in class. Which one of the following procedures illustrates how you might use shaping to do so?
 
  a. Explain the purpose of sitting quietly before reinforcement begins.
  b. Reinforce the child for sitting still on some occasions, but not on others.
  c. Reinforce the child for sitting still and listening for only a minute, then for progressively longer and longer periods of time.
  d. Frequently change the specific consequence you use to reinforce sitting still-and-listening behavior (e.g., you might use candy a few times, then praise, then privileges, and so on).

[lindahyatt42]

Answer to Question 1

b

Answer to Question 2

c