SHAPING IN THE 21ST-CENTURY - MOVING PERCENTILE SCHEDULES INTO APPLIED SETTINGS

The present paper provides a primer on percentile reinforcement schedules, which have been used for two decades to study response differentiation and shaping in the laboratory. Arranged in applied settings, percentile procedures could be used to specify response criteria, standardizing treatment across subjects, trainers, and times to provide a more consistent training environment while maintaining the sensitivity to the individual's repertoire that is the hallmark of shaping. Percentile schedules are also valuable tools in analyzing the variables of which responding is a function, both inside and outside the laboratory. Finally, by formalizing the rules of shaping, percentile schedules provide a useful heuristic of the process involved in shaping behavior, even for those situatios that may not easily permit their implementations. As such, they may help further sensitize trainers and researchers alike to variables of critical importance in behavior change.