MALKA214 Experimental Design and Functional Analysis Course description

N/A

Coursework requirements from MALK4000-401, MALK4000-403, and MALKA211, 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

• describe and discuss reliability
• describe and discuss the term generality
• describe and discuss validity, threats to inference, and different types of validity
• explain the role of replications in experiments
• discuss variability related to single subject designs and group-designs
• describe and discuss advantages and disadvantages of various experimental designs
• explain repeated measurements and when to conduct such measurements
• describe fundamental elements of inferential statistics, including hypothesis testing
• describe and discuss experimental methods for conducting reinforcer assessment and the functional analysis of behavior
• describe the basic principles for hypothesis testing using the binominal and normal distributions

Skills

The student can

• design simple experiments
• run and interpret common statistical tests
• interpret graphical displays of behavioral data and to present data in graphical form
• discuss ethics concerning the functional analysis of behavior

Competence

The student can

• analyze data in a behavior change project

In the BSCA specialisation, campus-based lectures, discussions and exercises are the main teaching methods. Students read selected texts in advance for each day of class, and everyone is expected to participate in class through questions and through joining in discussion. In the BSII specialisation, the main teaching method is digital course sequences, and feedback on details of course content, and supervised discussion groups will be available during pre-determined time periods. Feedback on written assignments is used in both specialisations. Students must have download and installed SPSS on their computers before the course starts

The following required coursework must be approved before the student can take the exam:

• 2 individual assignments submitted digitally, each with a maximum length of 12.000 characters, including spaces. References are to be included in the 12.000 characters.

Individual home;examination, 5 hours. Exam questions are in English. Students may submit their exams in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.;

All

Grade scale A-F

One internal and one external examiner will assess all exams.