Psychology 130

 

 

The Psychology of Learning

Fall 2001

 

Instructor: Michael Addis, Ph.D.

Meeting Times: MW: 2:25 – 3:40

office: 314 JC

office hours: M 9-10; W 1-2

email: maddis@clarku.edu

phone: 793-7266

Overview:

This course is designed to provide you with an overview of the psychology of learning and the basic principles of behavior analysis. What is learning? How do human and non-human organisms learn? How can we understand the role of the environment and consequences in the process of learning? What does all this have to do with you and your life? These are some of the questions we will attempt to address thoroughly in this course. We will explore these questions theoretically, and by examining relevant experimental findings with human and non-human organisms.

Background Requirements:

 You should have completed and a received a satisfactory grade in introductory psychology in order to be enrolled in this course. You should be willing to temporarily suspend your disbelief and suspicion of BEHAVIORISM as you have understood it previously. If, after taking this course, you are still convinced that behaviorists are concerned with nothing more than teaching pigeons to peck and rats to run, then I have not done my job (or you didn’t come to class!). If, on the other hand, you come away from this course with a more deeply educated understanding of behavioral analysis then I have done my job (and you came to class).

Readings:

Barker, L.M. (2001). Learning and Behavior: Bilogical, Psychological, and Sociocultural Perspectives. (third edition). Prentice Hall, N.J.

Barker does a good job of teaching the basic terms, concepts, and studies that form the basis of modern learning theory. He’s less interested in the philosophical and applied aspects of the psychology of learning and I will emphasize these more during class lectures and discussions.

Skinner, B.F. (1974). About Behaviorism. Random House, N.Y.

Straight from the horse’s mouth. Few people actually read Skinner in the original, and yet they still reject his ideas. This is his most accessible treatment of the core ideas surrounding radical behaviorism. The book will not be easy, but it’s short and you should read it slowly and carefully.

Baum, W.M. (1994). Understanding Behaviorism: Science, Behavior, and Culture. Harper Collins, New York.

Baum’s book is similar to Skinner’s though considerably more didactic. This book is out of print and copies of selected chapters are available at the bookstore.

Evaluation and Grading:

Your grade will be based on 7 bi-weekly quizzes (typically on Mondays, 20 points each), a short paper (40 points), and the quality of your questions (40 points - explained below). There will be no make-up quizzes for any reason. However, you may drop your lowest grade from one of the 7 quizzes. If you miss one of the quizzes, this will automatically be the one you drop. The total points possible in the class are:

120 (6 counted quizzes / 20 points each) + 40 (one paper) + 40 (questions) = 200.

Final grades are based on a percentage of the total possible points in the class (200).

A = 200 - 185

A- = 186 - 180

B+ = 179 - 174

B = 173 - 165

B- = 164 - 160

C+ 159 - 154

C = 153 - 145

C- = 144 - 140

D+ = 139 - 134

D = 133 - 125

D- = 124-120

< 120....yikes!

Discussion Sections:

You are all required to attend weekly discussion sections (times to be arranged). These are not lectures or review sessions. They’re really intended for you to discuss the material. In preparation for this, you will bring two questions (based on the readings or the lectures) to each discussion period. They should be written or typed clearly on a single sheet of paper with your name and the date on the top of the paper. The T.A.’s will collect the questions at the beginning and use them to foster discussion. Therefore, your questions should be designed to clarify concepts, or stimulate discussion. Questions such as, “What did professor Addis cover on Wednesday?” are not stimulating or clarifying. Questions such as, “If thoughts don’t exist, how can we explain creativity?” are very stimulating. Or, “What is the difference between rule-governed and contingency shaped-behavior?” High quality questions are ones which demonstrate that you are thinking about the material you are reading.

Course Schedule

1. week of: 8/27//01 -- Introduction, Overview of the Course, What is Learning? Mentalism versus Functionalism; Animal versus Human Learning

Barker: Ch. 1

Skinner: Introduction, Ch. 1

Baum: Ch. 1

2. week of 9/3/01 -- Biological basis of learning / Natural Selection

NO CLASS ON MONDAY: Labor Day Holiday

Barker: Ch. 2

Skinner: Ch. 3 pp. 37-44

Baum: Ch. 4

3. week of 9/10/01 – Simple Conditioning / Beginning of Associative Learning

MONDAY QUIZ

Barker Ch. 3-4

4. week of 9/17/01 – Associative Learning / Classical Conditioning

Barker Ch. 4-5, Skip pp 165-178

5. week of 9/24/01 – Instrumental Learning / Operant Conditioning/ Schedules of Reinforcement

MONDAY QUIZ

Barker Ch. 6

Skinner Ch.3 pp. 44-50

6. week of 10/1/01 – Instrumental Learning Continued (Learned and Unlearned Reinforcers, Response Classes, Differential Reinforcement, Shaping)

Barker Ch. 6

Skinner Ch. 4

7. week of 10/8/01 – Aversive Control / Avoidance and Escape Learning

MONDAY QUIZ

Barker Ch. 8

Skinner

8. week of 10/15/01 – Verbal Behavior

NO CLASS MONDAY: mid-semester break

Skinner Ch. 6

Baum Ch 7.

9. week of 10/22/01 – Rule Governed Behavior

MONDAY QUIZ

Baum Ch. 8 pp. 130-141

10. week of 10/29/01 – Thinking and Problem Solving

Skinner Ch. 7

Baum Ch. 88 pp. 142-147

11. week of 11/5/01 – Knowledge / Knowing / Self-Knowledge

MONDAY QUIZ

Skinner Ch. 9

Baum: Ch. 6

12. week of 11/12/01 – Culture

Baum Ch. 13

13. week of 11/19/01 - ??? catch up

MONDAY QUIZ

NO CLASS WEDNESDAY: Thanksgiving Holiday

14. week of 11/26/01 – Moral and Legal Control

Skinner Ch. 12

Baum: Ch. 2, 10

15. week of 12/3/01 – Clinical Applications of Learning Theory

PAPER DUE

Goldfried, M.R., & Davison, G.C. (1994). Clinical Behavior Therapy. New York. Wiley. Ch 1-2

16. week of 12/10/01

MONDAY QUIZ – Last day of class

 

Paper Assignment

This paper is a chance for you to apply material from the course to your own life. Your assignment is to take a particular behavior, or class of behaviors and describe from a behavioral perspective (1) what the behavior is, (2) why it occurs, and (3) how you would go about changing it. You may either choose to focus on your own behavior or that of another person.

Your paper should be divided into three sections.

I. Description of the behavior. In this section I want you to describe as completely yet concisely as possible what the behavior is. Be sure to describe the behavior as specifically as possible including examples. Avoid mentalistic or dualist descriptions and be sure to specify the contexts (occasions) in which the behavior takes place. If you choose your own behavior, please do not choose anything too personal (we trust your judgement). Some behaviors might include procrastination, overeating, lack of assertiveness, self-critical thinking, playing a sport or musical instrument, etc.

II. History of the behavior and maintaining variables. This section should describe the learning history of the behavior. What kinds of reinforcers, punishers, escape contingencies, establishing operations, discriminative stimuli, conditioned emotional reactions, response classes etc. have led to this behavior? What current behavioral processes maintain the behavior? In this section, it is very important to specify both the general behavioral process (e.g. escape contingency, discriminative stimulus etc.) and the specific example. For example, if you think a behavior is maintained by an avoidance contingency, what is the aversive condition to be avoided? What are the consequences of avoidance?

III. Plan for changing the behavior. This section should describe exactly how you would go about changing the behavior. For example, what sorts of changes would you make in the existing contingencies, discriminative stimuli, schedules of reinforcement, conditioned stimuli, rule-governed behavior, and so on. What changes in the behavior would you expect to see? How would you know if your intervention worked? How would you measure the outcome of the intervention?

Your paper should be typed, double-spaced and 7-10 pages long. Make absolutely sure to spell-check your paper and have someone else check the grammar (if you’re not sure). Section 1 should be about 1-2 pages and the rest of the paper split between sections II and III. Papers are due at the beginning of class on Monday 12/3/01.

 

 

 

 

 

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