Autoshaping

Modified: 2020-03-27

Autoshaping is a problem for learning theory. Autoshaping occurs as follows. An animal, say a pigeon, is conditioned by turning on a stimulus, say a lighted key, and then giving it a reinforcer, food in this case.

So, all the pigeon has to do is to eat after the light comes on, right? No, very often it begins to peck at the key. What happens next? Food is delivered. Soon, it is pecking all of the time. Why? Because pecking is followed by food. The pigeon has conditioned itself.

Why did the pigeon start to peck? That is the problem of autoshaping. Once pecking begins, it is easy to explain why it continues. However, there is no satisfactory explanation for why it starts. Notice that autoshaping is not operant conditioning. Can you see why?

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