These are just some issues that occur to me from time to time that may or may not be of interest to others...
Weblog
On the term "free-shaping"
Shaping is the term well established in behavior analysis and the term "free-shaping" seems to be an animal trainer invented term. Shaping involves reinforcement of successive approximations of a target behavior. It is a special kind of differential reinforcement. Both are compound procedures involving reinforcement and extinction, but while differential reinforcement changes only the rate or frequency (quantity) of a behavior, shaping changes the form (quality) of the behavior. They are both postcedent interventions in that they involve reinforcement and extinction, both postcedent behavior change processes. The antecedent conditions are not specified in the procedure.
The term free-shaping was conceived in order to provide a term for shaping wherein no contrived trainer provided prompts are utilized to evoke the approximations. There are occasions where one is operating under contingencies to avoid prompts and having to fade them and so it would seem there is a use for the term. There are reinforcers available for using the term. I am one of those people who dislikes all these new made up terms but free-shaping connotes something specific and useful and does not represent an error or misunderstanding of any kind. It is not conflating antecedent and postcedent interventions. Those who use the term can fully recognize what shaping is and is not. We can think of the "free-" part as specifying an antecedent intervention into the procedure and we put it with the word "shaping" because this addition is only for shaping projects.
On the permanence of punishment
You have likely heard the word suppression used to describe the effects of punishment on the target behavior. You may also have heard some people scoff at this word because they believe punishment can permanently eliminate a behavior. I'd like to clarify that a bit.
Punishment as a postcedent intervention, on its own, merely adds one more contingency to a behavior/situation. The punishment procedure does not, on its own, in any way remove or change the existing reinforcement contingency prevailing on that behavior. That would be extinction but punishment does not include extinction at all. In practical matters, we do sometimes try to extinguish a behavior and punish it if we are under contingencies to address the problem with aversers, but this is not what the punishment process or procedure involves itself. To suggest that punishment can eliminate a behavior is to conflate punishment with punishment plus other processes. If a behavior is exhibited then it has a reinforcement history; that contingency is in place. When we impose a punishment contingency on that behavior, we merely add that contingency to the prevailing reinforcement contingency. If the reinforcer is stronger than the punisher then the behavior will continue to occur, although perhaps at a reduced rate or frequency. If the punishment is stronger than the reinforcer then the behavior will be suppressed to some extent, depending on just how much stronger it is. Indeed the behavior may be suppressed to a rate of zero. But, as soon as the punishment contingency is discontinued, the existing reinforcement contingency prevails again and the behavior is expected to return to pre- punishment strength. In fact, there is usually a brief increase in strength above the pre-punishment rate or frequency. There are different theories as to why but in any case, it is a common effect. The main point here is note that punishment alone does not eliminate the behavior; it merely suppresses it to some extent while that contingency is in effect. If the behavior is permanently eliminated, it is not because of the punishment contingency alone. What would have occurred is likely extinction simultaneously imposed, or more commonly the suppression allowed for the performance and reinforcement of other behaviors. In that case, it was not the punishment that eliminated the behavior, it was the reinforcement of some other behavior that simply displaces the problem behavior. Punishment alone only suppresses behavior; it does not address the existing reinforcement contingency (like extinction would). Extinction is permanent, punishment is not.