Perspectives in Psychology II

Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:45am



Class/Topic Calendars for All Three Behavioral Modules

January February March April





Professors

Jennifer Queen Cognitive Class: Bush 229	Office: Bush 135 jqueen@rollins.edu t. 407-646-2206	Office hours TR 11-12, MW 2-3 or by appointment
Roger Ray Behavioral Class: Bush 162	Office: Bush J183 rdray@rollins.edu t. 407-646-2278	Office hours By appointment
Steven St. John Physiological Class: Bush 361	Office: Bush 131 sstjohn@rollins.edu t. 407-691-1153	Office hours By appointment

Readings

Readings must be completed before class on the day assigned.

· Myers, D. G. (2010). Psychology (9^th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

· CyberRat (http://www.ai2inc.com/Store/Store/cr_purchase.html) -- see the “Getting Started with CyberRat” pdf guide posted on Blackboard for full details on purchase, download, and activation/registration.

· Additional readings posted on Blackboard

Course Objectives

The Perspectives In Psychology courses (PSY 150 & 155) focus on a single topic in depth from the perspective of three subfields within the discipline. In this course, we will focus on the topic of perception from the perspectives of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological psychology. Through lecture, discussion, class activities, papers, and projects, your participation in this class should provide you with a greater understanding of theory and research in these three areas, and of the discipline of psychology in general. In addition, we hope that this class will enhance your ability to critically examine yourself and world around you from a psychological perspective.

Course Structure

The three perspectives will be taught by three different professors: Dr. Queen (Cognitive) through Exam 1, Dr. Ray (Behavioral) through Exam 2 (March 24), and Dr. St. John (Physiological) through to the final exam (April 28).

Module	Professor	Classroom	Exam & Lab Report Due
Cognitive	Dr. Queen	Bush 229	February 10
Behavioral	Dr. Ray	Bush 162	March 24
Physiological	Dr. St. John	Bush 361	April 28




Evaluation

1. Exams (60% of Grade) – Comprehension – To provide you with an opportunity to explain information and demonstrate your knowledge of the concepts covered in the readings and the class.

Exams will be largely multiple-choice, but may also include matching, fill in the blank, verbal associates, creation of graphs or diagrams, and/or short answer questions. None of the exams is cumulative.

2. Lab Reports (18% of Grade) – Application – To provide you with an opportunity to apply research methods and theory within each module while carrying out and reporting on a small study.

During each module you will carry out a small research project and write a 2-3 page report of your results including at least one reference (provided in class). The report will follow a format similar to the American Psychological Association (APA) style guidelines (a handout illustrating the format will be provided).

3. Analysis Project (10% of Grade) – Analysis & Synthesis – To provide you with an opportunity to synthesize research and theory from your first two modules and apply it to an analysis of a case study.

During the third module we will ask you to synthesize your knowledge from at least two of three modules and apply it to the analysis of a case study.

4. Research Participation (6% of Grade) – Experience – By participating in research studies, you have the opportunity to experience different forms of research used in psychology to answer questions.

Psychology is a science and the professors and senior majors in the Psychology Department are actively involved in research. The quickest way to earn these points is to participate in psychological research as an experimental subject, which requires you write a 2-3 sentence email to your instructor describing what you were asked to do. There are various other ways to earn points. Opportunities for these points will be announced throughout the semester and posted on Blackboard.

5. Small Assignments (6% of Grade) – Knowledge – To provide you with an opportunity to identify your knowledge of the concepts from the class and translate it to a written assignment.

During each module, you will be assigned brief homework or in-class assignments.

Course Policies

1. Disabilities – If you are a person with a disability we can work with you to make academic accommodations, but you must follow the proper procedures set forth by Disability Services Office at (box 2613) - Thomas P. Johnson Student Resource Center, 1000 Holt Ave., Winter Park, FL, 37289. Appointments can be scheduled by calling 407-646-2354 or email: gridgeway@rollins.edu. We will abide by the college-wide policy on disabilities viewable here: http://web65.rollins.edu/~sstjohn/policies.htm.

2. Academic Honesty – It is your responsibility to learn and abide by the academic honor code. If you are found responsible for an HC violation in this class, you will receive a failing grade for the course. More information can be found here: http://web65.rollins.edu/~sstjohn/policies.htm and also here: http://r-net.rollins.edu/academichonorcode/.

3. Attendance – This course requires your participation; attendance is mandatory. An excused absence requires documentation from a coach, physician or the Dean of Students office. Absences for religious holidays should be communicated to your professors well before the missed class. If you have seven absences, whether excused or unexcused, you will not receive a passing grade.

4. Late Work / Exams – If you have a documented, excuse for missing an exam, and you alert us within 24 hours of the exam, we may be able to arrange a make-up. Late papers will not be accepted without a compelling rationale; “I had a lot due that week” is unlikely to be considered compelling by any professor.




Perspectives in Psychology II

Spring 2011 Dr. Roger Ray

The Behavioral Perspective Module’s

Assignment Schedule

(see Module Calendars for corresponding dates for your section)

Roger Ray Behavioral Class: Bush 162

Office: Bush J183 rdray@rollins.edu t. 407-646-2278

Office hours By appointment

Class 1: Introduction – The Science of Quantities vs the Art of Qualities:

In-class workshop on Quantifying Behavior and Observation

Assignment A: Natural Behavior Patterns and Probabilities

Write an Executive Summary of the Dog Observation Demonstration Results (include summary of percent of observations that are qualitative/anthropomorphic vs objective/quantitative)

(due start of Class 2)

Read “Excerpts from Bakeman & Gottman.pdf” (24 pp)

Read “Myers, pp 1-45” (45 pp)

Class 2: Observational Operations – Describing what happens naturally

Assignment B: Behavior and Habituation

Read “Behavioral and Respiratory Synchronization Quantified in Killer Whales.pdf” (22 pp)

LAB ASSIGNMENT: Go to the Colony Room and "Add New Subject" by selecting a new animal that is "Naive, no Training." Then go to the "Set Experimental Parameters" screen, select "Habituation" from the Reinforcement Schedule menu, then set "Simulation Mode" to "Fast Simulation (no Video)". Type in "60" in the "minutes" field for "Session's Duration." Then go to the "Conduct Experiment" screen and complete your 60 minute “fast simulation” Habituation Session in CyberRat (ALWAYS SAVE VIDEO records of ALL sessions). Plot a cumulative response curve for the rate of “grooming” behavior throughout the 60 minute session. Now graph “Nose Top Front Left” as well. Be prepared to include the graphs in your results section along with a description of its implications as “Stage 1” of a multi-stage series of experiments making up the Behavioral module’s Lab Report due on Exam date. For example, is grooming a high rate or low rate behavior (and what benchmark are you comparing it to)? Is it equally likely to occur in each successive 10 minute-interval across the hour, or does it tend to occur in specific periods? Which ones? Did you anticipate this from your readings? If so, when you write your Lab Report, be sure to cite the source when you compare your results to those you read. NOTE: A detailed “model” report is posted as a pdf called: Report 1.pdf on BB as a model for you to follow (but NOT to duplicate verbatum!).

Class 3: Stimulus Presentations – Changing environments to change behavior

Assignment C: Elicitations

Run a 60 minute (with video ON) Session in CyberRat using the “manual reinforcement” menu setting but the Bar Reinforcement OFF. When asked if you plan to do any shaping, answer by selecting "No"...we do NOT intend to reinforce any specific behavior, but are simply testing "water" elicitation latencies at this time. Each time the animal is REARING UP in the FRONT LEFT CORNER of the chamber, click the manual reinforcement button to give water. Do NOT give water again until the animal drinks the drop just delivered. Do this 10 different times, then force-end the experimental session. Now, using the Replay screen, time the drink latencies for each of the 10 presentations of water (defined as the amount of time between hearing the drop delivered until you see the animal’s eye disappear into the water reservoir area). Plot these values in an excel spreadsheet and graph (to be included in this module’s Lab Report due on Exam date).

Class 4: Signaling Stimulus Presentations – How do we know what bees see?

Assignment D: Classical Conditioning as a Process & Subsequent Changes in Elicitation

Read Myer’s Chapter 7, pp 291-303 (12 pp)

Run a 60 minute (with video ON) Session in CyberRat with the “manual reinforcement” menu setting but the Bar reinforcement OFF. Each time the animal is in FRONT of the Water Reservoir, approximately a head’s length away from the water delivery hole, click the manual reinforcement button to give water. Do this 30 different times. After these 30 stimulus pairings (sound of delivery plus water), test for a change in your previously measured latency (i.e., as measured in assignment C) for going to drink by giving water each time the animal is REARING UP in the FRONT LEFT CORNER of the chamber again.

Now, using the Replay screen again, time the drink latencies for each of the 30 stimulus pairing of water (defined as the amount of time between hearing the drop delivered until you see the animal’s eye disappear into the water) and also for the 5 test trials given when the animal was rearing.

Add these values to your excel spreadsheet data from Assignment C and re-graph (also to be included in this module’s Lab Report due on Exam date).

Class 5: Classical Conditioning Applications – More pervasive than you might think!

Assignment E: Magazine Training as an Application of Classical Conditioning

Complete an Introduction for this Module’s Lab Report. First describe the problems of anthropomorphism in efforst to quantify and to make objective observations in Psychology. Subsequently describe how psychologists begin to systematically analyze how environments stimulate and alter behavior via stages of successively complex Research Operations. Begin with Observational Operations and what on can learn from them. Then add Stimulus Presentation Operations and describe what understanding this adds to results from more simple Observations. Now add a discussion of Stimulus Signaling of Stimulus Presentations and what Pavlov learned from this procedure. Compare Pavlov’s observations to those of von Frisch and Tinbergen. How are they alike, and how are they, at the same time, quite different? Now….READ Skinner’s “How to Train Animals” (on BB) and reflect on the application of Pavlov’s procedures in his description of “magazine training” using “clickers/crickets.” (FULL Lab Report due on Exam date).

Class 6: Consequential Operations – Operant & instrumental behaviors

Assignment F: Shaping through Successive Approximations

Read Myer’s Chapter 7, pp 304-308 (4 pp)

Read B. F. Skinner’s article “How to Teach Animals.pdf” (5 pp)

Using video ON, select the same animal you have already run through Habituation, Elicitation Testing, and Magazine Training to conduct as many 30 minute Sessions in CyberRat as required to successfully shape your animal to BAR PRESS. Upon successful completion, conduct 3 more sessions of 60 minutes each and CRF Schedule (and UNDER FAST SIMULATION--video OFF) and be prepared to describe: Bar-press warmups as setting-change-induced habituation to the chamber and Satiation as another form of habituation to water.

Include results and discussion of these phenomena into your Module’s Lab Report due on Exam date).

Class 7: Intermittent Reinforcement – – Patterns of responding for intermittent consequences

Assignment F: Leaning Schedules through Successive Approximations

Read Myer’s Chapter 7, pp 308-313 (5 pp)

Using Fast Simulation mode, run your previously Bar-Press trained and CRF maintained animal under 5 more 60 minute sessions in the following order:

Session 1 – FR 3

Session 2 - FR 10

Session 3 - FR 15

Session 4 - FR 20

Session 5 - FR 30

Now run 5 more sessions with settings equal to Session 5 (i.e., with FR 30). What patterns in behavioral operating characteristics emerge?

Now include results and discussion of these phenomena in your Module’s Lab Report due on Exam date).

Class 8: Operant Discrimination – Complex stimulus control of behaviors

Assignment F: Tracking the Stimulus Discrimination Development Curve

Read “Stimulus Discrimination in CyberRat.pdf” (4 pp)

Using Fast Simulation mode, switch to a VR 30 schedule and run as many sessions as required to get a stable (within +/- 5 percentage points of a 90% discrimination index) discrimination index for 5 successive sessions using a 60 sec S+ and a 60 sec S- period setting. Record your discrimination index in an excel spreadsheet and graph the process’ development curve. Now include results and discussion of these phenomena in your Module’s Lab Report due on Exam date). Complete your lab report by including these data and a discussion of how they address the concept of stimulus perception testing.

Class 9: Applied Behavior Analysis – Way beyond training animals!

Assignment F: Wrapping things up

Read Myers, Chapter 7, pp 313-325 (12 pp)

Complete your Lab Report by adding a reflective discussion about all that was learned from the experimental series concerning the impact of antecedent and consequential stimuli on the behavior of organisms. Don’t forget to also discuss what was NOT done in your experimental series vis-à-vis the impact of observing the behaviors of other individuals (i.e., social/imitative learning).