Undergraduate Programs: Syllabi 300 Level

Undergraduate Programs

Syllabi 300 Level

Conditioning & Learning
830:311:06
Fall 2006

Instructor: Prof. Deborah Bryant
Email: dsbryant@rci.rutgers.edu
Office: Tillett Hall 515
Office hours: by appointment

*Your final exam will be turned in in room SEC 111 on Busch campus. Please make arrangements for this (see calendar of events at the bottom on this syllabus).

Required Textbooks:
Domjan, M. (2006). The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 6th Edition. Thomson Wadsworth.

Course Overview:
This course is designed to introduce you to major topics in learning and behavior, in order to help you continue to appreciate the complexity of your thoughts, feelings and behavior. We will look at historical theories of psychological phenomena as well as new research and their implications. We will examine brain anatomy and physiology and how these translate into behavior. By the end of the course you should be more aware of where your own thoughts, feelings and behaviors are coming from, more appreciative of the origins of the feelings and behaviors of others, and better able to distinguish genuine psychological science from pseudoscience and folklore.

Grading
Homework assignments
There will be 12 homework assignments made throughout the course. The assignments are given in the assignment schedule on the last page of this syllabus. Homework assignments are due the day of the exam that follows them. Each homework assignment will be worth 10 points. Together, homework assignments will constitute 23% of the course grade. No late homework assignments will be accepted for any reason.

Exams
There will be four noncumulative exams during the course. Questions will include information covered in any assigned readings as well as any additional information presented in lectures; therefore, attending lectures can be to your benefit. Remember to bring several sharpened #2 pencils to each exam, as answers written in pen or crossed out and corrected can be misread during scoring and can easily result in your failing to receive credit for correct answers. Each exam will count 60 points. Together, these four exams will constitute 47% of the course grade. Make-up exams will be given only in cases of medical emergency that have been related immediately to the Psychology Department and can be documented by the student.

Final
The final exam for this course will consist of essays and case studies. Students will prepare answers to these essays and case studies ahead of time, using their notes, textbook, and any outside materials that are appropriate. Any articles or books cited in the body of an answer (besides the course text) must be cited in a bibliography at the end of the answer. The final will be worth 150 points, 29% of the course grade. The number of points available for each answer will be indicated after the question or case study. The final is due at the beginning of the scheduled final exam time for the course, but can be handed in earlier. No late finals will be accepted for any reason.

A note on academic integrity: Each student is required to produce his or her own work on the final. If a student copies the work of another student and turns in this work as his or her own, both students involved will receive a score of zero for the assignment. For detailed information concerning academic integrity, please refer to the “Policy on Academic Integrity for Undergraduate and Graduate Students” in the Rutgers University handbook or on the website.

Extra credit
There will be no extra credit opportunities offered for this course. Please keep in mind, when studying for your exams, that poor performance will remain with you. I understand the desire to seek to elevate your grade at the eleventh hour by performing extra credit activities, but any requests to do so will be denied. This is in fairness to your classmates who have not permitted themselves to fall into a similar predicament. Keep up with your coursework. Period.

Contact:
The best way to contact me is by email, or before or after class. I try to check my email every day, but scheduling can prohibit this, and there can be a lot of volume (if I have hundreds of students), so don’t save your questions until the last minute, since my reply might come too late to help you. If you need to meet, contact me to schedule an appointment.

Date	Topic	Homework	Chapter
9/6	Intro	1-1 to 1-4	1
9/11	Elicited Behavior: Habituation	2-2 to 2-3	2
9/13	Elicited Behavior: Sensitization		2
9/ 18	Classical Conditioning: Foundations	3-1 to 3-4	3
9/20	Classical Conditioning: Foundations (cont.)		3
9/25	Classical Conditioning: Mechanisms	4-1 to 4-3	4
9/27	Classical Conditioning: Mechanisms (cont.)		4
10/2	EXAM 1 – Homework assignments due	Chs 1 thru 4	1-4
10/4	Instrumental Conditioning: Foundations	5-1 to 5-5	5
10/9	Instrumental Conditioning (cont.)		5
10/11	Schedules of Reinforcement	6-1 to 6-4	6
10/16	Choice Behavior		6
10/18	Instrumental Conditioning: Motivational Mechanisms	7-1 to 7-2	7
10/23	Motivational Mechanisms (cont.)		7
10/25	EXAM 2 – Homework assignments due	Chs 5 thru 7	5-7
10/30	Stimulus Control of Behavior	8-1 to 8-3	8
11/1	Stimulus Control of Behavior (cont.)		8
11/6	Extinction	9-1 to 9-2	9
11/8	Extinction (cont.)		9
11/13	Aversive Control: Avoidance	10-1 to 10-2	10
11/15	Aversive Control: Punishment		10
11/20	EXAM 3 – Homework assignments due	Chs 8 thru 10	8-10
11/22	THANKSGIVING RECESS – NO CLASS
11/27	Animal Cognition: Memory Mechanisms	11-1 to 11-4	11
11/29	Memory Mechanisms (cont.)		11
12/4	Animal Cognition: Special Topics	12-1 to 12-3	12
12/6	Animal Cognition: Special Topics (cont.)		12
12/11	EXAM 4 – Homework assignments due	Chs 11 & 12	11-12
12/13	Final handed out in class with instructions
12/22	FINAL EXAM DUE 10:00 AM (SEC 111)

*NOTE THAT YOU MUST COME TO ROOM SEC 111 ON BUSCH CAMPUS IN ORDER TO TURN IN YOUR FINAL. Do not go to your regular classroom, as it will be occupied by another class taking their final exam.