Which term describes the process of guiding learning in graduated steps using reinforcement or the absence of reinforcement?

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Shaping behavior is a method of teaching that uses reinforcement to guide learning in small, graduated steps toward a desired action. By reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the target skill, you gradually build the complete behavior. In practice, you deliver reinforcement for each successive step you want the learner to perform, and you may withhold reinforcement for attempts that aren’t yet at the current criterion. This approach fits within operant conditioning, but it specifically describes the stepwise process of shaping, not just the broad theory or the separate idea of stopping reinforcement. In orientation and mobility, you might shape a skill like route navigation by rewarding initial cues (detecting a curb), then rewarding following the curb line, then rewarding successful crossing with fewer prompts as the learner progresses. Extinction refers to stopping reinforcement to decrease a behavior, and cognitive learning theory focuses on internal mental processes, so they don’t capture the stepwise reinforcement emphasis of shaping.