Psychology 472: Experimental Analysis of Behavior Fall 2014

Transcription

1 Psychology 472: Experimental Analysis of Behavior Fall 2014 General When: M, W 2:30 pm 3:45 pm Where: AB 107 Prerequisites: PSY 101 Credit Hours: 3 Instructor Matt Locey, Ph.D. Office: MSS 402 Office Hours: By Appointment mlocey@unr.edu Phone: (775) Overview This course is an introduction to the experimental analysis of behavior, a natural science approach to the cross-species study of environment-behavior relations. We will be reviewing basic learning principles and the laboratory experiments that have discovered and refined our understanding of those principles. Most of this course will focus on operant conditioning (with classical conditioning as a secondary focus). Although emphasis will be placed on basic laboratory research with animals, the behavioral principles of interest will be applicable across species, including humans. Indeed, you should be able to recognize most of these principles at work in your own everyday life. Doing so should improve your own understanding of the course material and make it easier to make helpful changes in your own behavior and the behavior of those around you. Course Goals (1) Fluency with the terminology of behavioral research. (2) An understanding of the theoretical, methodological, and empirical foundations of a science of behavior. (3) Acquisition of a scientific, objective, and empirical approach to the analysis of behavior (4) An appreciation for real-world applications of basic behavioral laboratory studies. (5) Access to opportunities in behavior analysis: basic, applied, research, or practice. Student Learning Objectives Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to demonstrate accomplishment of all the Course Goals shown above. Format This course is composed of five units: each consisting of three weeks of classes and the readings assigned for those classes. With the exception of quiz days, there will be a reading assigned for every class meeting after the first (every third Wednesday, at the end of each unit, there will be an in-class quiz). Most of the assigned readings will be from the required textbook: Pierce, W. D., & Cheney, C. D. (2013). Behavior Analysis & Learning (5 th Ed.). New York: Psychology Press. Readings You are expected to come to class fully prepared to discuss any readings (from the textbook and from any supplemental readings) assigned for that class period. On the list below, you will see the specific page numbers from the textbook that you will be expected to have read prior to the listed class. The textbook readings begin and end with the start and finish of sections rather than pages. If the assigned reading includes any partial pages, you will see the section title that begins and/or ends the reading. The terminal section is NOT included in the assigned reading. For example, you would not be responsible for the Tactics of Behavioral Research section on Sep. 8 th (we ll be reading that for the 10 th ). You should plan to spend 2-3 hours studying the reading for each class. I recommend consulting the study guide as you read. I also recommend coming up with real-world examples of the behavioral principles described in the reading so that you can better understand and retain the material.

2 Date Unit 1: Behavior Analysis Reading Aug. 25 Info Exchange Aug. 27 Do We Need a Science of Behavior? (1) On Radicalizing Behaviorism; (2) What Shamu Taught Me... Sep. 1 Labor Day - No Class Sep. 3 Basic Assumptions pp. 1-3, 9-11 [The Selection of Operant Behavior - Focus On...], Sep. 8 Conditioning Overview pp. 4-6, [29 - Tactics of Behavioral Research] Sep. 10 Research Design pp [Tactics of Behavioral Research - Advanced Section: Perceiving... ] Sep. 15 Applied Behavior Analysis pp [Research Strategies in ABA - Contingency Management...] Sep. 17 Unit 1 Quiz Unit 2: Classical Conditioning Sep. 22 Phylogenetic & Ontogenetic Behavior pp [55 - New Directions: Neuroscience and Learning in Honey Bees] Sep. 24 Respondent Conditioning pp [Respondent Generalization and Discrimination -72] Sep. 29 Drugs and Respondents pp [73 - Advanced Section: Complex Conditioning] Oct. 1 Complex Conditioning pp [76 - Rescorla-Wagner Model of Conditioning], Oct. 6 Operant-Respondent Interactions pp [Operant... - Taste...], [Advanced Section ] Oct. 8 Unit 2 Quiz Unit 3: Basic Contingencies Oct. 13 Operant Behavior pp [85 - Focus On: Reinforcement and Problem Solving] Oct. 15 Extinction pp Oct. 20 Punishment pp , [164 - Paradoxical...] & Balancing Social Acceptability... Oct. 22 Negative Reinforcement pp , Oct. 27 The Nature of Reinforcement Escape and Avoidance Conditioning in Human Subjects... Oct. 29 Unit 3 Quiz Unit 4: Stimulus Functions Nov. 3 Stimulus Control pp Nov. 5 Complex Stimulus Control pp [Complex Stimulus Control - On the Applied Side...] Nov. 10 Basic Schedules pp [117-Note On: VI Schedules, Reinforcement Rate, and...] Nov. 12 Conditioned Reinforcement pp [293 - New Direction: Neuroscience and Conditioned...] Nov. 17 Complex Schedules pp [Information and Conditioned... - Preference for Bad...] Nov. 19 Unit 4 Quiz Unit 5: Choice Nov. 24 Concurrent Schedules pp [255 - The Matching Law] Nov. 26 The Matching Law pp [260 - Matching on Single...], [281 - Estimating Bias...] Dec. 1 Behavioral Economics pp [Behavioral Economics, Choice, and Addiction - 280] Dec. 3 Rules & Altruism pp [Rule-Governed Behavior - Following Rules and Joint Control] Dec. 8 Cultural Analysis The Ultimate Challenge: Prove B.F. Skinner Wring Dec. 10 Prep Day - No Class Dec :30 Unit 5 Quiz & Remedial Quiz 2

3 Supplemental Readings For some classes, supplemental (non-textbook) readings will also be required (supplemental readings are italicized in the table above). All supplemental readings can be accessed through our course WebCampus site. Links for most of these readings are also included in the list below the table. 1. On Radicalizing Behaviorism (Intro ONLY: pp.1-2; Malagodi, 1986 The Behavior Analyst) 2. What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage (Sutherland, 2006 The New York Times) 3. Balancing Social Acceptability with Treatment Effectiveness of an Intrusive Procedure (Grace, Kahng, Fisher, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis) 4. Escape and Avoidance Conditioning in Human Subjects without Their Observation of the Response (Hefferline, Keenan, Harford, 1959 Science) 5. The Ultimate Challenge: Prove B.F. Skinner Wrong (Chance, 2007 The Behavior Analyst) Assignments This course is divided into 5 units. You will receive a grade (on a 100-point scale) for each of the 5 units. Your final grade will be the average of these 5 unit grades. In each unit, points can be earned from: I. Probes that may occur at the start of each class. You can earn up to 10 points per probe. There will be at least one probe per unit, there will likely be at least two. II. Quizzes At the end of each unit you will be given the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the material from that unit. Each quiz will be worth 90 points. Probes (10+ points per unit) Every day that reading is assigned there will be a 50% chance (typically determined by a coin flip) that the lecture class will begin with 1-2 probe questions. Probe questions are usually not particularly difficult to answer correctly IF you have done the reading AND understood what you read. Probe questions must be answered within the first 5 minutes of class (if you are late by 5 minutes or more, you will not have a chance to answer the probe questions). You will earn 2 points for each submitted probe. Correct answers will be worth up to an additional 8 points total (so you will earn 2-10 points for each submitted probe). Once all probes have been turned in, we will discuss the questions (and answers) in class so that you will have immediate feedback on whether you answered each question correct or not. Probe points will be forfeited if you leave class early after completing a probe. There will always be at least one probe per unit. That means that if there have not been any probes prior to the last class before a quiz, there will be no coin toss just an automatic probe. Because the quiz for each unit is worth 90 points, only one completely correct probe is needed for full probe credit. Each unit has 5 class sessions in which a probe is possible. Given that there is a 50% chance of a probe each day, we will likely average more than 2 probes per unit (so there will likely be at least one extra credit probe for most units). If the class is extremely lucky for a particular unit, you could earn up to 50 points in probes and only need to earn 50/90 points on the unit quiz to get a perfect score for that unit. Unfortunately, 100 is the maximum allowed score for a unit (so probe points that would increase a unit score above 100 are lost. Quizzes (90 points per unit) Although there will be substantial overlap between the readings and our class discussions, this DOES NOT mean that everything you need to know will be covered in the readings and it DOES NOT mean that everything you need to know will be covered in class. You are responsible for all of the material covered in the assigned readings AND in class. You will be able to demonstrate your understanding of the material on a quiz at the end of each unit. Quizzes will consist of a combination of multiple choice, true-false, short answer, and diagramming questions. There will be five total quizzes the last of which will occur during your Final Exam period. Much of the course material for each class will build on content from previous classes. As such, all the quizzes are cumulative. However, the focus of each (including the final exam ) will be on the content for the most recent unit. 3

4 Remedial Quiz (Replace one quiz grade) As mastery of the material is more important than immediate mastery of the material, you will be able to take a second-chance remedial quiz for any one (and only one) of the first four units. The remedial quiz will be given with the Unit 5 quiz (during the Final Exam period). The remedial quiz can also be taken as a make-up quiz if, for whatever reason, you are unable to take a particular unit quiz. The higher of your two grades (between the remedial and original quiz) for that particular unit will be used in calculating your final grade (the lower score is dropped). It is HIGHLY recommended that you come prepared to take each of the original quizzes and not rely on the remedial quiz. Note that while everyone can take the remedial quiz (whether or not the original quiz was taken), the remedial does function as a make-up. As such, there will be no other make-ups given if you miss a unit quiz. Extra Credit There will be no extra credit opportunities in this course beyond those described above. You will be able to earn up to 40 points of extra credit from probes for each unit. You will also be able to replace your lowest quiz grade with the Remedial Quiz at the end of the semester. There will be no other extra credit opportunities in this course, so please take full advantage of those; and please focus your energies on earning regular credit by mastering the course material and demonstrating your mastery on the probes, quizzes, and lab work. Grading Grades on probes should be immediately obvious as we discuss the probes in class. Unit grades will be posted on WebCampus once the quizzes for that unit have been graded. Final grades will be determined by the tables below after adding the points from all five units. The points shown are the minimum number needed for the indicated grade (the percentage is calculated by dividing the total points earned by 500). Grade Points Grade Points Grade Points A 463 (93%) B- 398 (80%) D+ 333 (67%) A- 448 (90%) C+ 383 (77%) D 313 (60%) B+ 433 (87%) C 363 (73%) D- 298 (60%) B 413 (83%) C- 348 (70%) F <298 Punctual Attendance Class attendance is highly recommended. If you fail to attend (or are more than a few minutes late to) class you may miss (or not have enough time to correctly answer) a probe (see above). You may also miss out on topics covered in class that are not addressed in the readings. Excessive lateness to a quiz will cost you the opportunity to take that quiz (see above). Enrolled students who fail to attend class during the first week may be dropped to make room for those who intend to take their education seriously. Policy on Make-Up Work I do not ever offer make-up probes. The end-of-the semester Remedial Quiz is the only opportunity for making-up a missed quiz. If a serious personal illness, family crisis, religious holy days, or collegesanctioned activities will cause you to miss multiple days of classes, please contact me as soon as possible to let me know so that we can make arrangements. Classroom Distractions You are expected to be attentive and involved in class discussions. Any electronic device that is not being used to enhance that involvement needs to be turned off and put away. Also, please do not leave class prior to the end of that class. If an emergency forces you to do so, please do not return. Probe points will not be earned on a day in which you leave class early. 4

5 Contact Info My goal is for you to successfully achieve all those goals listed on the first page of this syllabus. If you don t ask me for help when you need it neither of us can succeed. As indicated at the top of the syllabus, I have no set office hours. With set office hours, I have found that multiple students come to see me at the same time, with some of those students never having the opportunity to meet with me (because they eventually have to be somewhere else). So, if you would like to meet with me, please me to schedule a meeting time. That having been said, you are welcome to drop by my office anytime without an appointment though I obviously cannot guarantee I ll be available when you do. If an requires a response, I will usually respond within 24 hours to s sent Sunday- Thursday (except on Holidays). Often I will respond much faster than that, but please do not assume that I am constantly checking . Testing Policies Probes and quizzes are formal testing situations that demand certain constraints on behavior. The following policies will be enforced: When you finish a probe, turn your paper over and wait quietly until I ask you to pass the probes to me. Do not talk, walk around, or leave the room while probes are being taken or collected. You may not leave the room during a quiz until you have turned in your quiz. If you are so late to a quiz that anyone else in the class has finished and left the room, you will not be allowed to take the quiz. You are not allowed to consult your notes or textbook during probes or quizzes. You must keep your eyes on your own work during probes and quizzes. I will be watching your eyes, so please adjust or remove anything that would prevent me from doing so (hats, sunglasses, etc.). Cell phones and other electronic devices may not be used in any way during probes and quizzes. Please try to remember to silence your phone before class. Academic integrity and honesty are required at all times. Cheating, attempting to cheat, or assisting someone else in cheating will result in a failing grade in the course and may result in other sanctions by the University. For more information on the University s academic integrity policies, go to Academic Success Services Your student fees cover usage of the Tutoring Center (775) These centers support your classroom learning; it is your responsibility to take advantage of their services. Keep in mind that seeking help outside of class is the sign of a responsible and successful student. Disability Services Any student needing academic adjustments or accommodations should speak with the Disability Resource Center (Thompson Building, Suite 101) as soon as possible to arrange for appropriate accommodations. Class Recording Surreptitious or covert video-taping of class or unauthorized audio recording of class is prohibited by law and by Board of Regents policy. This class may be videotaped or audio recorded only with the written permission of the instructor. In order to accommodate students with disabilities, some students may be given permission to record class lectures and discussions. Therefore, students should understand that their comments during class may be recorded. Syllabus Changes This syllabus is subject to change. You are responsible for finding out whether the syllabus has been modified. Changes will be announced in class and an updated syllabus will be available on Blackboard. 5