Fall 2015
1 I. Course Information
Schedule: Tuesdays/Fridays, 8-9:40 AM Location: Shillman Hall 420
II. Instructor Information
Instructor: Terri Bright, Ph. D., BCBA-D, CAAB Telephone: 617/842-1182
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: Fridays, 3:30-6:30, Room 164 A/B. Please email for an appointment. III. Course Description
This course introduces students to the basic concepts and theories of applied behavior analysis as they relate to learning and motivation. Topics include operant and classical conditioning, reinforcement, punishment, extinction, discrimination training, stimulus control, concept formation, and generalization. Throughout the course, students will apply these principles to learning in their own lives, as well as in the lives of other human and non-human animals.
IV. Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Verbalize the history and characteristics of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA); 2. Identify the principles of behavior analysis ;
3. Describe how organisms learn through reinforcement, extinction, and punishment; 4. Apply the principles of behavior analysis to learning through teaching methodologies; 5. Apply the principles of behavior to learning in groups.
IV. Required Texts and Readings
Miltenberger, R. G. (2012, 2008). Behavior modification: Principles and procedures. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. NB: Fifth edition
Additional readings from textbooks and journals will be provided on Blackboard V.Class Format
The course consists of interactive lecture, discussion, in-class activities, and quizzes. All students are expected to actively participate during in-class group activities and discussions. As such, students must display easy-to-read name tags during each class.
Lectures:
Lectures will incorporate active responding (in the form of choral responding), and review of assigned reading You should follow along with the slides during lectures, however, test material may not be limited to what is on the
slides, so class attendance is strongly recommended.
Fall 2015
2 There will be 6 cumulative quizzes given throughout the semester; each quiz will be reviewed during the next class Quizzes will be given out during the 1st
15 minutes of class and will go until 8:30 am (Please let the instructor know if you have accommodations to start the quiz earlier.)
If you must miss a quiz, inform the professor beforehand, as well as the reason for absence. Makeup quizzes are at the discretion of the professor.
Each quiz will be comprised of multiple choice and short answer questions
There will be a cumulative final for this class composed of material covered in quizzes
Attendance and Participation: Students are expected to attend every class and to participate during in-class
discussions and group activities, and will be graded as such. Students are also expected to have their names posted in front of them at the start of every class. If you are going to be sick or cannot attend a class due to an emergency please e-mail me prior to the class meeting.
Laptops, Tablets, or Cellphones: If you have your laptop or tablet open, it is expected you are using it to take notes, review readings, and/or participate in class activities. If you are seen using the laptop or tablet for purposes that do not include classroom activities, you will be asked to put it away for the remainder of the class. A second occurrence of this will result in you being asked to leave class that day and a “0” grade will be given for any missed quiz or assignments. Cellphones are not permitted in the classroom. If there is an emergency and you need to have your cellphone available please notify the instructor prior to class.
VI. Grading 80% quizzes 20% final
Quiz material is cumulative. In other words, on every quiz, there will be questions about material discussed earlier in the semester. The lowest quiz grade will automatically be dropped when calculating your final grade.
Policies:
This course strictly adheres to the following Northeastern University policies (for any questions refer to your NU student handbook):
Incompletes
Academic honesty and integrity (http://www.northeastern.edu/osccr/academichonesty.html) Plagiarism
Academic Support is available to all students (http://www.advising.neu.ed) Last day to drop class without a W grade is TBA
Last day to elect pass/fail for Fall class is TBA
Fall 2015
3 II. Course Outline & Assignments
Class Topics Readings
Week 1
Fri class 1 9/11
Course Overview; Introductions;
Learning Cooper Chapter 1; Miltenberger, Chapter 1
Tues class 2 9/15
Behavior Analysis and Science; Pavlov
Miltenberger Chapter 8 thru p 150; Spiegler &
Guevremont Ch 1
Week 2
Fri class 3 9/18
Respondent Conditioning; Phobias and Their Treatment
Jones & Friman, 1999; Friman et al, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/a- speck-in-the-sea.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=all&_r=0 Tues class 4 9/22 Edward Thorndike, B. F. Skinner, the
3-Term Contingency Cooper Ch 2
Quiz 1 classes 1-3 Week 3 Fri class 5 9/25 Stimulus and
Response Classes Cooper Ch. 2 again
Quiz review Tues class 6 9/29 Reinforcement, Rule-governed and Superstitious Behavior Miltenberger ch 4 Week 4 Fri class 7 10/2 Motivating operations Miltenberger pp 73-75, 115-116; Cooper pp 261-264; Rispoli et al., 2011 Tues class 8 10/6 Preference
Assessments Fisher et al. 1992; Whitehouse, et al., 2014
Quiz 2 classes 1-7
Week 5
Fri class 9 10/9 Punishment Miltenberger Ch. 6
Quiz review
Tues class 10 10/13 Extinction
Miltenberger, Ch. 5, 14 Functional
Communication Training, (Carr & Durand)
Week 6
Fri class 11 10/16
Differential
Reinforcement Miltenberger Ch. 15; Lanovaz, et al., 2013
QUIZ 3, classes 1-10 Tues class 12 10/20 Schedules of Reinforcement
Cooper Ch. 13 pp 305-314; Effects and Side Effects of DRO (Cowdery et al)
Quiz review
Week 7
Fri class 13 10/23 Shaping
Miltenberger Ch. 9; Sokolowski, et al., 2010;
Fall 2015
4
Tues class 14 10/27 Chaining Miltenberger Ch. 11
Week 8
Fri class 15 10/30 Stimulus Control Miltenberger Ch. 7; Dickenson, et al., 2-15
QUIZ 4: class 1-14
Tues class 16 11/3 Antecedent Control Miltenberger Ch 16
Quiz review Week 9 Fri class 17 11/6 Habit Reversal/Self Management
Miltenberger Ch 20 & 21, Skinner As
Self-Manager, Epstein, 1997 Tues class 18 11/10 Concept Formation/Prompts Miltenberger Ch. 10 Week 10 Fri class 19 11/13 Discrete Trial
Training The Discrete Trial Format; Catania et al., 2009
QUIZ 5, classes 1-18
Tues class 20 11/17 Incidental Teaching McGee at al 1985
Quiz review
Week 11
Fri class 21 11/20 Generalization Stokes & Baer 1977 Tues class 22 11/24 FBA/FA humans Miltenberger Ch. 13; Iwata et al.
Week 12
NO CLASS
11/27
Tues class 23 12/1 FBA/FA non-humans Dorey et al., 2009, Dorey et al, . 2011
Fri class 24 12/4
Group
Contingencies/Verbal
Behavior Cooper pp 567-573; Cooper Ch. 25
QUIZ 6, classes 1-23
Week 13
Tues class 25 12/8 Review for Final
Quiz review
Fri class 26 12/11 FINAL EXAM FINAL
BACB© Fouth Edition Task List Items Covered:
Explain and Behave in Accordance with the Philosophical Assumptions of Behavior Analysis FK-01 Lawfulness of behavior
FK-02 Selectionism (phylogenic, ontogenic, cultural) FK-03 Determinism
FK-04 Empiricism FK-05 Parsimony FK-06 Pragmatism
FK-07 Environmental (as opposed to mentalistic) explanations of behavior. FK-08 Distinguish between radical and methodological behaviorism. FK-09
Distinguish between the conceptual analysis of behavior, experimental analysis of behavior, applied behavior analysis, and behavioral service delivery.
Define and Provide Examples of: FK-10 Behavior, response, response class FK-11 Environment, stimulus, stimulus class
Fall 2015
5 FK-12 Stimulus equivalence
FK-13 Reflexive relations (US-UR) FK-14 Respondent conditioning (CS-CR) FK-15 Operant conditioning FK-16 Respondent-operant interactions FK-17 Unconditioned reinforcement FK-18 Conditioned reinforcement FK-19 Unconditioned punishment FK-20 Conditioned punishment
FK-21 Schedules of reinforcement and punishment FK-22 Extinction
FK-23 Automatic reinforcement and punishment FK-24 Stimulus control
FK-25 Multiple functions of a single stimulus FK-26 Unconditioned motivating operations FK-27 Conditioned motivating operations
FK-28 Transitive, reflexive, surrogate motivating operations
FK-29 Distinguish between the discriminative stimulus and the motivating operation FK-30 Distinguish between motivating operation and reinforcement effects
FK-31 Behavioral contingencies FK-32 Contiguity FK-33 Functional relations FK-34 Conditional discriminations FK-35 Stimulus discrimination FK-36 Response generalization FK-37 Stimulus generalization FK-38 Behavioral contrast FK-39 Behavioral momentum FK-40 Matching law FK-41 Contingency-shaped behavior FK-42 Rule-governed behavior
Distinguish between the Verbal Operants FK-43 Echoics
FK-44 Mands FK-45 Tacts FK-46 Intraverbals
Measurement Concepts
FK-47 Identify the measurable dimensions of behavior (e.g., rate, duration, latency, interresponse time). FK-48
State the advantages and disadvantages of using continuous measurement procedures and discontinuous measurement procedures (e.g., partial- and whole-interval recording, momentary time sampling).
BACB© Course Content Requirements
BACB© Content Areas and Requirements Course Totals
Content Area Task List Items Total Hours Needed PSYC 3451: Learning Principles and Behavior Analysis Total Hours Allocated Ethical and Professional Conduct GRC 15 15
