Shaping the location of a pigeon's peck: effect of rate and size of shaping steps.

For several pigeons, pecking at particular locations within a ten-inch-wide response area was reinforced by grain presentations. The reinforced locations changed systematically to "shape" response location back and forth across the area. The rate and size of these shifts in reinforced locations were varied in both between-subject and within-subject comparisons to evaluate the influence of these variables on the shaping process. Larger step sizes produced larger shifts in location for all sizes inspected, with all sizes from .5 to 3.0 inches effective in shaping behavior. More rapid steps were approximately as effective as slower steps for all rates of shift inspected from 25 reinforcers to 400 reinforcers per step. These data suggest that shaping peck location proceeds most efficiently with rapid, relatively large shifts in criterion performance.