Peabody College of Vanderbilt University

Department of Special Education

Syllabus for SPED 3930

Tuesday and Thursday, 11:10 to 12:30

SR, Room 201

Spring Semester, 2002

Course Prefix, Number, Title, and Credit

SPED 3930: The Experimental Analysis of Behavior (3 semester credit hours)

Instructor, Office Location, Telecommunications, and Office Hours

Instructor:Craig H. Kennedy, Ph.D.

Office:Department of Special Education

Office 304D, MRL Building

Telecomm:322-8178 (office)

343-1570 (fax)

Office Hours:By appointment

Course Description

Overview of basic behavioral processes. Presents information relating to human and nonhuman learning with a focus on the experimental analysis of behavior. Topics covered include environmental feedback mechanisms, schedules of reinforcement, establishing operations, multioperant performances, discriminative stimulus control, stimulus equivalence, rule-governed behavior, behavioral pharmacology, and remembering/forgetting. The course also focuses on research methodologies and the critical analysis of research. Students apply their skills using computer based simulations of laboratory experiments.

Corequisite: None

Required Text

Pear, J. J. (2001). The science of learning. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.

Required Software

Sniffy the virtual rat (Pro version) [Macintosh or PC software]. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Additional Readings

Baum, W. M. (1974). On two types of deviation from the matching law: Bias and undermatching. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 22, 231-242.

Dougherty, D. M., et al. (1994). The effects of smoked marijuana on progressive-interval schedule performance in humans. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 62, 73-87.

Fisher, W. W., & Mazur, J. E. (1997). Basic and applied research on choice responding. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 30, 387-410.

Gewirtz, J. L., & Baer, D. M. (1958). The effect of brief social deprivation on behaviors for a social reinforcer. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 56, 49-56.

Hackenberg, T. D., & Joker, V. R. (1994). Instructional versus schedule control of humans’ choices in situations of diminishing returns. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 62, 367-383.

Hammond, L. J. (1980). The effect of contingency upon the appetitive conditioning of free-operant behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 34, 297-304.

Herrnstein, R. J. (1961). Relative and absolute strength of response as a function of frequency of reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 4, 267-272.

Lattal, K. A. (1995). Contingency and behavior analysis. The Behavior Analyst, 18, 209-224.

Lattal, K. A., & Neef, N. A. (1996). Recent reinforcement-schedule research and applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 29, 213-230.

LeFrancois, J. R., & Metzger, B. (1993). Low-response-rate conditioning history and fixed-interval responding in rats. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 59, 543-549.

Schroeder, S. R., & Holland, J. G. (1969). Reinforcement of eye movement with concurrent schedules. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 30, 897-903.

Vollmer, T. R., & Hackenberg, T. D. (2001). Reinforcement contingencies and social reinforcement: Some reciprocal relations between basic and applied research. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34, 241-253.

The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis articles are available at the following URL:

The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior articles are available from Medical, Heard, and Education libraries.

The Behavior Analyst and Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology articles are available from the Education and Heard libraries, respectively.

Course Content

WeekTopic

Jan. 10Course overview

Jan. 15Theoretical approaches to learning

Jan. 17Nonassociative learning

Jan. 22Overview of respondent behavior

Jan. 24Basic respondent processes

Jan. 29Overview of operant behavior

Jan. 31 Basic operant processes

Feb. 5Derivatives of associative learning

Feb. 7Class discussion of readings

Feb. 12Midterm I

Feb. 14Private events and autoshaping

Feb. 19One-trial learning and emotional responses

Feb. 21Schedule effects on response patterns

Feb. 26Discriminative stimulus control

Feb. 28Stimulus control generalization

Mar. 5-7Spring break

Mar. 12Conditional discriminations I

Mar. 14 Conditional discriminations II

Mar. 19 Class discussion of readings

Mar. 21Midterm II

Mar. 26Remembering and forgetting

Mar. 28Conditioned reinforcement

Apr. 2Concurrent operants

Apr. 4Choice and preference

Apr. 9Motivation and establishing operations

Apr. 11Punishment

Apr. 16Murine lab visitions

Apr. 18 Class discussion of readings

Apr. 23Final Exam

Chapters, Readings and Projects

• January 10

Course overview

• January 15

Chapter 1

Reading 1: Gewirtz & Baer, 1958, JASP (due: 1/22)

• January 17

Chapter 2

Project 1: Exercises 1, 2, and 3 (due: 1/24)

• January 22

Chapter 3 (pp. 25-30)

Reading 2: Hammond, 1980, JEAB (due: 1/29)

• January 24

Chapter 4 (pp. 55-57; 77-78)

Project 2: Exercises 5, 6, and 7 (due: 1/31)

• January 29

Chapter 3 (pp. 30-50)

Reading 3: Lattal, 1995, TBA (due: 2/5)

• January 31

Chapter 4 (pp. 58-77; 77-87)

Project 3: Exercises 20, 21, and 22 (due: 2/7)

• February 5

Chapter 5

Reading 4: Vollmer & Hackenberg, 2001, JABA

• February 7

Discussion of readings 1-4

• February 12

Midterm I

• February 14

Chapter 6 (pp. 105-115)

Reading 5: LeFrancois & Metzger, 1993, JEAB (due: 2/21)

• February 19

Chapter 6 (pp. 116-130)

Project 4: Exercises 23, 24, and 33 (due: 2/26)

• February 21

Chapter 7

Reading 6: Hackenberg & Joker, 1994, JEAB (due: 2/28)

• February 26

Chapter 8 (pp. 153-157; 162-172)

Project 5: Exercises 8, 9, and 10 (due: 3/12)

• February 28

Chapter 8 (pp. 158-161; 173-182)

Reading 7: Dougherty et al., 1994, JEAB (due: 3/14)

• March 5 & 7

Springbreak

• March 12

Chapter 9 (pp. 183-192)

Project 6: Exercises 11, 12, and 13 (due: 3/19)

• March 14

Chapter 9 (pp. 193-206)

Reading 8: Lattal & Neef, 1996, JABA

• March 19

Discussion of readings 5-8

• March 21

Midterm II

• March 26

Chapter 10

Reading 9: Herrnstein, 1961, JEAB (due: 4/2)

• March 28

Chapter 11

Project 7: Exercises 25, 26, and 27 (due: 4/4)

• April 2

Chapter 12 (pp. 255-259)

Reading 10: Baum, 1974, JEAB (due: 4/9)

• April 4

Chapter 12 (pp. 259-280)

Project 8: Exercises 14, 15, and 16 (due: 4/11)

• April 9

Chapter 13

Reading 11: Schroeder & Holland, 1969, JEAB (due: 4/16)

• April 11

Chapter 14

Project 9: Exercises 17, 18, and 19 (due: 4/18)

• April 16

Chapter 115

Reading 12: Fisher & Mazur, 1997, JABA

• April 18

Discussion of readings 9-12

Performance Evaluation

TaskPoints

Reading 15

Project 15

Reading 25

Project 25

Reading 35

Project 35

Mid-Term I50

Reading 55

Project 45

Reading 65

Project 55

Reading 75

Project 65

Mid-Term II50

Reading 95

Project 75

Reading 105

Project 85

Reading 115

Project 95

Final 50

Total270

Grading

A+ Top GradeA (100% to 93%) A- (92% to 90%)

B+ (89% to 87%) B (86% to 83%) B- (82% to 80%)

C+ (79% to 77%) C (76% to 73%) C- (72% to 70%)

D+ (69% to 67%)D (66% to 63%)D- (62% to 60%)

F (59%)

Readings

A 1 page summary of each reading is due 1 week after the assigned date (note exceptions on 2/5, 3/14, and 4/16). Papers should be written in APA Manual style (5th Ed.). Paper should outline the following: (a) experimental question or hypothesis, (b) subject population, (c) what behavior(s) where measured and how, (d) what types of experimental manipulations occurred, (e) how the experimental manipulations changed behavior, and (f) the authors’ summary of why their study was important.

Projects

Specific details for each project will be provided in written format the day the assignment is made in class.