Psyc 320 -- Section 01 -- Spring 1999

Course Syllabus

Tom Creed E-mail Tom: tcreed@csbsju.edu

Goals and Objectives.
Class format.
Daily Work
Required Text--The Web.
Our Virtual Communal Space (VCS).
Class Participation.
The UGLIs.
Case Studies.
Final Exam.
The Class Portfolio.
Life's a rat race.
Grading
Web Links

Our goals for the course are that you will:

• learn the basic principles of conditioning,
  
• come to appreciate that these principles can be used to explain, predict, and
  control human actions,
  
• "automatically" use these principles in analyzing situations you encounter,
  
• use them to improve your own life, and
  
• have this ability five years from now.

These goals are hierarchical-- in order to use these principles in your own life, you must have the ability to analyze situations you encounter, which in turn depends upon your first having learned and appreciated their importance. Finally, you will have had to assimilate the principles into your basic world view to be able to use them effectively five years from now.

The basic information about conditioning and learning will be presented here on the web (and through occasional readings), with class time being devoted to activities that promote deeper learning. Therefore, class periods will primarily be small group discussions, whole-class discussions, and, on rare occasions, a mini-lecture. Your active participation in discussions is crucial to the success of this course.

Small group discussions will generally follow a technique called cooperative learning. A great deal of research, much of it conducted by David and Roger Johnson at the University of Minnesota, indicates very strongly that students learn best when a major part of their learning comes from interactions with other students. For many people in academia, professors as well as students, this seems counter-intuitive. It seems that learning would be best when an expert (the teacher) transmits information (the lecture) to a novice (the student). One reason that this seems that it would be most efficient is because we tend to view education as the transmission of knowledge, and we make an analogy between learning and electronic data transmission, as occurs between two computers. However, this simplistic model incorrectly represents learning. For a person to learn, active rehearsal must occur, and one of the best forms of active rehearsal is to talk to someone else about what you know. Furthermore, the communication is most effective when the two parties have a shared cognitive set (---How's that for a nice bit of psychologese?). What this means is that two people know similar things and think about things in similar ways. It turns out that one of the best ways of actively rehearsing material with people with shared cognitive sets is to be in small groups of peers. Cooperative learning, when this structure is followed, produces a 2/3 standard deviation or greater increase in learning and retention. We will talk about our use of this learning technique in class.

My role in this course is to structure the environment (our class) so that you will most likely learn the material as well as possible, and spend some time playing expert and transmitting knowledge.

You should check our web site daily, especially the discussion forums. On most days, there will be several new postings to the discussions, and I will post updates/new information about the course on the opening page for the course. Most days, you will have some assignment relevant to the class. Every week or two, you will have a significant writing assignment, the UGLIs, due. The assignments on the other days will be less formal, but serve a similar purpose--outside of class assignments are designed to help you assimilate what happened in previous class meetings and to prepare you for the next class meeting. These more informal assignments will be things like participating in an electronic forum discussion on some topic, find some examples of behavior that illustrate some principle we are talking about in class, etc. Your performance on these daily assignments will contribute to your Class Participation grade.

The World Wide Web is our main "text" for this course. This web site contains most of the basic information about conditioning and learning that you'll need. We will have occasional readings as well.

I've tried to structure the content part of our web site so that you will learn the principles in a pedagogically sound way. Quite a bit of research on adult learning shows that we learn best by reading some, reflecting on what we've read, personalizing the material, writing about it, and sharing our ideas with others who also have some understanding of the material.

Periodically throughout your reading, you'll encounter Blinky (). Blinky means look here!--there's something for you to do that will help you learn the material better. Sometimes it will be an interactive demonstration, other times it will be a scenario to ponder then post a response to our electronic conference. Either way, you should always attend to Blinky--your responses will be part of your class participation grade.

In addition to Blinky, you will occasionally encounter Pavlov's dog, Fido. . Fido means that there is some additional information that you may find interesting, or it may help explain something, but it's not essential to go there. If the description sounds interesting to you, or you think it may help, then click on Fido. When you are done, the Back button in the upper-left corner of your browser will get you back to the text.

I've used the web for Principles of Learning and Behavior for a few years now, but I'm using it much more extensively this year, and I've used it in lieu of a textbook for two years now. Please give me feedback (either positive or negative) throughout the semester about how it's working--this is a work in progress, and we all have a stake in it working as well as possible.

To print, or not to print, that is the question (sorry, Wm.). It may seem like every time you encounter a new content section in the course, it would be easiest to just print it out and take it with you to Sal's and read it between rounds on Thursday night. There are two reasons why you should wait to print the readings until you need a printed copy. The web is an interactive site--hyperlinks just don't work off the printed page. This web site is a work in progress--what is up here today is likely not going to be as complete as what is up here tomorrow. Once you've printed something out, it won't change, even though the information on the site might (and the site is our "official" document). Print the unit when you aren't going to have access to the web for a while, you want to take notes on what you're reading, right before a case study, etc. In other words, use restraint in printing out files.

If you are interested in reading more about technology and effective pedagogy, please read my recently published chapter entitled Extending the Classroom Walls Electronically.

Our virtual communal space is our course page. One of the things I'm really excited about with it is that we can all contribute to our shared cognitive set through the discussion forums and the class member links. Not only will you make frequent postings to the discussion forums (such as when you respond to Blinky), but you also have some control over the course content by posting documents and interesting links that you have found. If you have your own home page, you can make a link to it and keep your own links about conditioning and learning. The VCS levels the playing field in our class in two ways--not only can you have your say in virtual discussions, but, by being able to post documents and links, you have much more influence on the course content than in the traditional classroom.

If you are interested in reading more about the pedagogical implications of a VCS, you can read The Virtual Communal Space, an article that I wrote that was published in the September 1997 edition of The National Teaching and Learning Forum.

As discussed briefly above, we will spend quite a bit of time in structured groups this semester. When we do, you will often be asked to hand in an assignment that was based on your group's work. This group write-up will be part of your class performance grade.

Another component of your class participation grade will be based on your use of the WCB conference that we have set up for the class. The quality of your answers/comments in the WCB forums will be an important determiner of your class participation grade.

I expect you to attend class regularly and be thoroughly prepared to participate actively. I view your class work very much as if it were your job. When you leave here, your employer will expect you to be prepared and contributing. Our use of class time is such that you need to be prepared and participating to make it a maximal learning experience for both you and the other members of the class. We will take attendance and each of you is permitted to miss 2 class periods without penalty. After that your class performance grade is reduced by the proportion of classes you miss. For example, if you miss 5 class periods, the class participation component of your grade would be reduced by approximately 10%.

Class cooperative learning exercises, the WCB conference, class attendance, along with an overall assessment of your contribution to the class, will be worth a maximum of 150 points.

Why do I have to do these things anyway?

The UGLIs are designed to provide you with a solid knowledge base by having you write out answers to unit guide questions. Research in cognitive development clearly shows that material is retained better and used more appropriately when information is personalized. Specifically, long-term learning is enhanced when:

• individuals frame material in their own terms,
• come up with their own examples of the concept, and
• have a role in deciding the importance of information.

So what's in these UGLIs?

You will receive unit guides for each chapter of the text. A major portion of your grade in this class will be determined by your performance in answering the questions on the unit guides. The unit guides have three sections: Examples, Integrative Essay, and To Think About.

Examples consists of specific terms important to the topic under study. You need to come up with an example that is original, authentic, and involves human behavior that you have actually witnessed or experienced. In addition to the example, you need to explain why your example is an instance of the concept. Again, the act of explaining why it is appropriate will help encode the concept into your long-term memory.

Integrative Essay consists of questions that require a substantive answer. Very often, you will be asked to give a real world example that you have observed of a specific principle or concept. If an example is called for in the Integrative Essay section, you will be specifically asked to provide it and, as is the case for the Examples section, the example must be original, authentic, and involve human behavior that you have actually witnessed or experienced, and you need to explain why your example is an instance of the concept.

These questions will often ask for your own opinion and/or require you to pull together various pieces of information to draw a conclusion. Your answer to these questions is of particular importance, since they will be of the most long-term benefit since they require you to put large chunks of information into a conceptual framework. Again, considerable research supports this procedure as an effective way to synthesize and retain complex information. The questions in this section will constitute a large portion of what we will discuss in class.

To Think About consists of questions that are typically theoretical in nature. They are topics that we will discuss in class, usually in small group discussion. Our discussion will be facilitated if you have spent some time before class contemplating the question. We want you to be prepared to discuss these questions, yet not be burdened with writing more formal answers than necessary. What you are to do is write out notes on these questions, very much like the notes you would have if you were going to give a short, 2-3 minute talk on the topic. Occasionally, I will ask a couple of you to give a short oral presentation on a To Think About question. If you are called on, you will hand in your notes after your presentation (selection will be random with replacement). This random process, similar to a Variable Interval schedule of reinforcement, is meant to insure quality preparation without overburdening you. Your performance on these oral presentations and your notes will contribute to your grade as Classroom Exercises. (This is the first example of applying the principles of conditioning in this class; a Variable Interval schedule produces a moderate, sustainable, even rate of behavior. A plethora of studies have demonstrated that this type of performance [spaced vs. massed practice] produces the strongest long-term learning with the least effort.)

These three sections will make it highly likely that you will frame material in your own words and come up with your own answers--key elements in enhanced learning.

How do I get the UGLI?

The UGLI for each chapter is at the end of the unit. For example, at the end of the unit on Pavlovian conditioning, you'll see UGLI2. Just click it on, and you'll go to the UGLI. If you follow the next couple of steps, responding to the UGLIs will be even easier:

1. Click on Spawn UGLIx in Word. On public access machines, this will load Word and bring up the UGLI.
   
2. You can now answer the UGLI, then save it, send it to BFSKINNER, etc.
   

So what's the Big Deal about getting UGLIs in on time?

By answering the questions before coming to class, you will not only better assimilate the material presented in class, but you will earn several days grace from purgatory. It is also necessary to pass the course. Your task, then, is to do the following before each class meeting:

• Read the assigned unit on the web. You should do this at least a couple of days before we will discuss it in class.
• A day before our first class meeting on a topic, you should think about the questions in the UGLI and then start a word processor, call up UGLI3.DOC (or whatever you called the file), then type in your answers in the appropriate place. You can save this file and recall it to re-edit it to your heart's content. Only when you are ready will you submit it.
  
• The easiest way to submit the UGLI is by including it as an attachment to BFSKINNER. You need to send the UGLI to BFSKINNER by at least two hours before class begins (send by 9:20 a.m. on the date it is due).
• Study the informational handouts that follow each chapter's study guide and be familiar with the material in them. If there are questions at the end, think about them as you do the To Think About questions.
  
• Come prepared to discuss the concepts mentioned in the chapter and on the study guide.

What happens if my UGLI is late?

Late assignments are punished at the rate of 50% for the first day and 10% per day for each succeeding day. An assignment is late if it is posted after 9:20 a.m. on the due date. An assignment posted at 9:21 is considered a day late. (Here's a second principle learned from behavior modification--contingencies need to be well specified--appropriate behavior and the consequences of inappropriate behavior need to be unambiguously spelled out). The reason for the stiff penalty is twofold:

• The purpose of the written answers to study guide questions is to assure that you are prepared for class so that you get the maximum benefit from class time. If you have not worked through, and on occasion struggled with the questions, this will not happen. You will be a drag on your peers during group discussions, demonstrating ill manners and bad breeding.
  
• Questions are discussed in class. If you were allowed to hear the discussion before you wrote your answers, you would have an unfair advantage over your peers who handed their assignments in on time.
  

As you will notice in the Schedule of Reinforcement section, your performance on this portion of the class accounts for a large proportion of your final grade. Take your performances on the study guide seriously; I do. Finally, the work you hand in should be your own. Feel free to discuss issues raised in the study guides with each other (especially the larger essay questions), but compose your answers yourself. Claiming another's work as your own is referred to as plagiarism, which is a mortal sin for which you will burn in hell for eternity. It will also result in a failing grade in the course.

Of the 200 points possible on your written answers to the study guides, half are available for your initial answers. At the end of the semester, your study guides are to be turned in again along with any revisions you may wish to make and the other half of the points are awarded for this revised edition of your study guide answers. For example, if you received 80 out of 100 for your initial attempt and then you revised several questions that had been weak, you might receive 92 points for your revised answers, giving you a total of 172 points. The reason for this grading procedure is that we want you to do as good a job as possible the first time through, yet we want to reinforce improvement. This procedure reinforces both a good first effort while allowing you to increase your score by improving your answers on a rewrite.

What happens after I E-mail my UGLIs to BFSKINNER?

After you have E-mailed your answers to a unit guide, your answers are evaluated by the TAs and me. Individual questions are commented on, and we will offer suggestions for improvement if your answer was not as strong as it could have been. We also provide you with an overall assessment of your work on the UGLI. The reason that letter grades or points are not assigned for individual study guides is twofold:

1. First, I would rather give a holistic grade at the end of the semester that reflects your overall performance--it seems fairer and will not be as influenced by a few less-than-sterling performances.
2. More importantly, grades, as is the case with any external reinforcer, tend to predominate in controlling an individual's performance, weakening the control exerted by subtler, more intrinsic reinforcement. I hope we can set up an environment so that you can concentrate on doing your best without being concerned about a half-point here, a point there, etc.
   

(As a sidelight, most students do well in this class. The vast majority get Bs or higher.)

In addition to submitting your UGLI answers at least 2 hours before class, you will also post a Make Up Your Own (MUYO) question on the chapter and explain why you are interested in this question. This question should be significant and your explanation of why you are interested in this question should show thoughtfulness. For many questions, for most of the really important questions, there is no one right answer. The MUYO question is how you will communicate what is of significance in your reading. After the first class meeting on a topic, but before noon on the following day, you will read each others' questions and carry on a conference on the electronic conference.

There will be three case studies. Case Studies are fairly detailed descriptions of a typical example of behavior, and you will be asked to give a behavioral account of the case. Your lowest case study score may be replaced by half of your final exam score if it is higher.
Case Studies and, of course, classes, can not be made up. If you happen to miss a case study or class, there is flexibility in the grading procedure so that you will not be excessively harmed by missing one of either. What this means is you need not explain to me why you missed a case study or a class. I assume all reasons for missing class are equally valid, and do not want to be in the business of deciding what is a good excuse and what isn't.

Sample case study #2.

The final exam will be a combination of a few short answer questions, similar to the Identification/Examples and Short Answer questions on the UGLIs, and one large synopsis question, given below. The Final Exam will only be given at the scheduled time.
Synopsis question:

Over several class periods, and in a handout, we discussed a grand theory of behavior--a three part synopsis concerning the relationship between Pavlovian, operant, and intrinsically reinforced behavior, and their relationship to genetically constrained forms of behavior. The first part of this synopsis described general relationships between these various forms of behavior, while the second part described how experiential load affected these relationships, and the third part described how environmental situations would affect the extent to which any of these types of behavior would apply.

For the majority of the final, you will describe in detail this model of the relationship between various forms of behavior, including many examples to illustrate your points. Be sure to describe the components of conditioning that you feel are most important in understanding human behavior, and why you consider them important. In your answer, when you use technical terms, be sure to describe them adequately so that I know that you know what you are talking about. An example will probably help, also. After you have described this model, tell what implications it has for behavior theory. Does it strengthen or weaken conditioning as an explanation of behavior? Why or why not? I do not care which position you take, but be sure that you make a strong, well-supported argument.

You will keep a portfolio of your work for the semester. The portfolio serves two very important purposes: It is a way of communicating to me what you have learned, and it will serve as a permanent record for you of what you have learned. A good way of keeping your portfolio is to keep everything in a large 3-ring binder, with dividers between the various sections described below. Your portfolio should consist of the following sections:

• A repository of documents from the class. You should keep, in an orderly manner, handouts that you have received, returned UGLIs and case studies, and your class notes.
  
• Your observations on your rat training efforts. You should record something each day you work with your rat. In addition to the actuarial data (date, time, weight [your rat's not yours], etc.), you should at least briefly record what you attempted and what success you had. If you observed some principle of behavior in operation, or had some insight into conditioning as a result of your work that day, you should record it. These notes will be the basis of a paper you will write towards the end of the semester summarizing what happened with your rat, and why you think it happened (see Complex Maze Learning Assignment handout for more details).
  
• An out-of-class journal. The exact nature of your journal is something you should decide, but should include:
  • your notes on miscellaneous readings (e.g., newspaper and magazine articles) and how they relate to class,
  • examples of the principles discussed in class that you have observed operating outside of class,
  • questions and insights that you have drawn from what you have read and heard about in class.
  The purpose of this section is to stretch your learning from the classroom to the real world. The principles of behavior are widely applicable to understanding the world, and much of what is written in newspapers, appears on television, etc. can be, and is, explained by conditioning principles. A note of warning: This is the portion of the journal that is most difficult, and which is slighted most often by students. Many scholars find that such a journal is an invaluable way of keeping track of their thoughts, and a great deal of evidence suggests that taking concepts from the classroom into the world is one of the best ways of learning material in a deep way.
  
  Your journal entries should focus on principles relevant to the class, rather than serve as a diary. While I'm sure it would be fascinating reading, please do not write about your personal triumphs and disappointments in love, problems with your car, or which class members you think are cute, unless you are specifically going to give an explanation using concepts from Principles of Learning and Behavior.
  

Occasionally, I will show up with The Box. If I walk into the class with The Box, it means that your portfolios are due. Not tomorrow, not that afternoon, but then. I consider late journals a sign of inadequate work. Whether you are in class or not, your journal should be. Appearances of The Box are unannounced. This procedure also approximates a Variable Interval schedule of reinforcement. Following our collection of journals, we will schedule individual conferences with you to go over your journals, as well as giving you some formative feedback on your performance to date on other aspects of the course.

You will train a rat to run a complex maze during the semester. To find out more, click on Life's a Rat Race

Both mentoring and judging involve assessment--gathering information about and evaluating student learning. The difference is the ultimate purpose of the assessment. The type of assessment needed for mentoring, formative assessment, is meant to give both of us information on your learning, so that we both can do what we need to do to enhance its quality. We will in fact engage in a great deal of formative assessment during the semester--I'll listen in on your cooperative learning group discussions, follow your discussions on our electronic conference, etc. I will also let you know when I think you are showing progress in learning, and give you suggestions on how to improve. This is part of my role as coach and mentor. The second type of assessment is called summative. At the end of the semester, I will need to engage in summative assessment by judging the quality of your performance and giving you a grade for the course. Switching from coach to judge is by necessity a conflict, but seems to be an inherent part of education. While it has the potential to distance teacher and student, we'll do our best to minimize this conflict by giving you a lot of feedback on how you are doing. Quite a bit of research on assessment in higher education points to the fact that one source of the conflict is that students and professors often have very different ideas of grading standards. So that you have a sense of how I view grades, I'd like to tell you my view of what particular grades mean:

C- Indicates that the student showed good basic understanding of the material and was able to express that understanding clearly and accurately. Assignments were completed on time, and for multiple segment work such as the portfolio, there were sufficient entries to show consistent effort and understanding.
B-- Indicates that the student not only showed good basic understanding and diligence, but went beyond basic understanding and was able to extend the knowledge to other situations, making connections between the material and other concepts. The expression of these ideas shows greater depth of understanding and critical thinking.
A-- Indicates a superior level of understanding of material and expression of ideas, with a depth of critical thinking on issues such that the individual shows a professional level of understanding of the material.

Obviously, anything less than good understanding and consistency would merit less than a C. Thankfully, I have to make such judgements fairly infrequently, and hard work and consistency make it easy to avoid.

You should not feel overly intimidated by these standards. With hard work and dedication, every student in this class can do well, and the majority of students in the past have received a B or higher grade by the end of the semester.

   UGLI Answers                                 200 points
   Case Studies (3 @ 100 pts. each)             300 points
   Class Activities                             150 points
   Portfolio                                    150 points
   Final Exam                                   100 points
   Life's a Rat Race                            100 points




                                       Total:  1000 points 

Exchange Schedule

			 925 points or above              A
			 890-924 points                  AB
			 850-889 points                   B
			 800-849 points                  BC
			 760-799 points                   C
			 700-759 points                  CD
			 650-699 points                   D
			     649 points or below          F

Last modified on August 25, 1998.