Brooklyn College - CUNY
Brooklyn, New York
Learning Fall,
2008
2412
James Hall
Course
Description
This course explores
basic principles of animal learning.
Some discussion will concern nonassociative forms of learning, but we
will focus more on analyses of associative learning (especially Pavlovian and
instrumental conditioning). The
framework we will use considers learning as a form of knowledge acquisition. We will ask how knowledge about the relationships
among events is acquired by animals, how to conceptualize "knowledge"
in animals, and how such knowledge might be converted into observable
behavior. Although most of the
course will draw heavily on animal learning research not involving humans, we
will also consider the relevance of basic principles in this domain to research
questions in various human learning situations (e.g., category learning and
causality judgment). The chief
aims of the course are (1) to acquaint you with current thinking about learning
and, more generally, (2) to help you appreciate the logic of empirical
discovery.
Instructor
Dr. A. Delamater
Office # 4401
Office hours: Mon, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Wed, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Other
times, by appointment
Office Phone: 951-5000 x6026
email: andrewd@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Web
Page
A web page for this class is currently
under construction. Although
incomplete at present, your exam grades will be posted here and I will try to
post other relevant information (eg., study questions) as we go along.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/psych/delam/53.1
Textbook
Bouton, M.E. (2007).
Learning and behavior: A contemporary synthesis. Sinauer Associates, Inc.
It is important that you read the relevant
chapters as we discuss them in class.
You will also be responsible for additional material presented in class
that is not contained within the text.
Grading
Your grade in this
class will be determined by your test performance, exclusively. There will be four exams (3 tests and a
final). Each of these will include
only new information. Your final
grade will then reflect a weighted average of your four exam scores. The first exam will contribute 22% towards
your final grade and the 2nd, 3rd, and final exams will
each contribute 26% towards your final grade. The first exam will be weighted slightly less than the other
three because the material will be somewhat less rigorous.
You'll find that what
will help you most in this course in preparing for tests will be studying in
groups. Often, the ideas are
better grasped if you can articulate them to others. Moreover, you'll see where your deficiencies are in trying
to articulate the ideas to others.
More on grades: Grades will be assigned based exclusively on your exam
performance, but you will be largely graded relative to your peers, although I
will not attempt to fit your scores to a normal distribution (so they will not,
in this sense, be graded Òon a curveÓ).
The highest "cluster" of test scores will receive the highest
grade, and the next cluster of scores the next highest grade, etc. Consequently, the final grade
boundaries will not be determined until the end of the semester after all of the
exam scores have been recorded.
Along the way, however, you will be given information as to how your
score relates to the rest of the class after each test.
Missing
an exam
Make-up tests will be
given only when there is "good" reason for having missed an
exam. For example, if a sudden
illness should cause you to miss an exam, then you should be prepared to
provide me with a brief note signed by your physician. Contact me before an exam in the event
that you anticipate missing one or as soon as possible otherwise. In all cases, communicate with me....
It will be your
responsibility to attend class regularly and participate. Doing so will help you understand what
material I regard to be most important, and this should be helpful when you
study for exams. Food and drinks
should not be brought into the classroom, and, likewise, any trash you may have
should be thrown away in a garbage bin before leaving. Please keep the place clean. Also, because it can be distracting otherwise,
please make sure your cell phones are off during class time. Finally, please refrain from leaving
and re-entering the room repeatedly during class.
Tentative Schedule
Date
Chapter Topic
Aug 27 1,2 Opening remarks
1,2 Historical
and philosophical roots
Sept 3 Nonassociative
learning: Habituation,
Dishabituation, &
Sensitization
Continued
10 2,3 Pavlovian
Conditioning: Its generality and
basic concepts
Continued
17
*** TEST #1 ***
2,3 Determining
Conditions of Pavlovian Learning
24 Continued
Continued
Oct 15 4 Theories
of Pavlovian learning: Rescorla-Wagner Model
Mackintosh,
Pearce-Hall
22 WagnerÕs SOP, AESOP, & Pearce Configural
Theory
*** TEST #2 ***
29 5 Associative
Structures in Pavlovian learning
5 Determinants
of Pavlovian Performance
Nov 5 6 General
Processes in Learning
7 Instrumental
Conditioning: Basic concepts
12 7 Instrumental
Conditioning: Theories of Reinforcement
Continued
19 *** TEST #3 ***
8 Stimulus
Control: Categorization,
Generalization, & Discrimination
26 Information
Processing Approach
Interval
Timing & Spatial Learning
Dec 3 9 Motivation
& Instrumental learning
Continued
10 10 Associative
Structures in instrumental learning
Avoidance
learning & punishment
Dec 17 (6:00 pm - 8:00 pm) *** Final Exam ***