PSYCHOLOGY 805:  Wed, 1:30 - 4:30 p.m.

CORE COURSE IN LEARNING THEORY
AND BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

This course will begin with the basics, but will quickly build upon those to address current developments. The sequence of general topics is indicated below, along with designation of most of the readings (there may be occasional additions or changes to include newly discovered or newly published articles).

• Your preparation should be organized around the Preparation Guides. Each of these will be distributed a week in advance; it will include specific discussion questions, as well as specifying any changes in the coming weeks' reading assignments.

• The Text: A. C. Catania, LEARNING (4th Edition), Prentice-Hall, 1998.  The order for this course is placed through Zavelles.

• There will be a mid-term exam, whose questions will be drawn from the Preparation Guides preceding its date.

• The following question will constitute the final exam, to be scheduled by appointment during exam week:
  Provide a detailed exposition of one of our weeks' topics; this will count as 1/3 of the exam.  Then, discuss in detail the contribution of prior weeks' concepts/principles to the material of that week, and of that week's concepts to the developments in subsequent weeks.

• If you wish to reduce the weight given to the examinations in determining your grade, you may submit a paper on or prior to the first day of exam week:

  • relating behavioral theory and interpretation to another topic or tradition that is of interest to you, or
  • reviewing the literature on a research topic relevant to the course.

The weight given to the paper can be as much as 25% of your grade, but must be negotiated with me, prior to the submission of the paper.

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