MALKA214 Experimental Design and Functional Analysis Course description

Coursework requirements from MALK 4000-401, 4000- 402, 4000- 403, MALKA 211, MALKA 212 and MALKA 213 or equivalent must be approved to participate and submit coursework requirements in MALKA214.

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes classified as knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student:

• can discuss experimental logic
• can discuss reliability
• can discuss the term generality
• can discuss validity, threats to inference, and different types of validity
• can explain the role of replications when employing experimental designs
• can discuss variability related to single subject designs and group-designs
• can describe and discuss advantages and disadvantages of various experimental designs
• can explain repeated measurements and when to conduct such measurements
• can describe how to conduct a component analysis to decide the effective components in treatments
• can consider how to conduct a parametric analysis to determine which values of consequences, like size and duration, are effective
• can describe fundamental elements of inferential statistics
• can describe and discuss functional analysis of behavior and describe how to conduct such analysis
• can describe the basic principles for hypothesis testing using the binominal and normal distributions
• can describe typical developmental milestones in children

Skills

The student:

• can arrange simple experiments
• can interpret graphical displays of behavioral data and to present data in graphical form

Competence

The student:

• can analyse data in a behavior change project

Reliability; validity; generality; single subject designs; group designs; component analysis; descriptive and inferential statistics; functional analysis; developmental milestones in children.

The course will include lectures, exercises, and discussions of literature. The lectures will partly be based on interteaching sequences using literature from the curriculum. Students analyze the data collected in the self-management experiment in MALKA 211. Practical training in the execution and interpretation of functional analysis are included.

Students submit 2 written assignments according to the deadlines in the course schedule.

Assignment 1: describing an experiment from a case description, max 10 pages including references

Assignment 2: deliverables with different statistical calculations

Exam content: Learning outcomes

Form of examination: Individual written examination with invigilation, 4 hours

Examiners: One internal and one external examiner

Grading scale: A grading scale of A (highest) to F (lowest) where A to E is a pass grade and F is a fail grade

Examination support materials

None.