MALKA214 Experimental Design and Functional Analysis Course description

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

Knowledge

The student can

• describe and discuss core concepts from research on respondent conditioning
• describe and discuss core concepts from research on operant conditioning

Skills

The student

• can identify in practical examples the terms of the operant paradigm

Competence

The student

• can describe and exemplify a functional analysis of behavior
• can describe selected experimental research that has been foundational in the development of behavior analysis as a science

Teaching and learning methods include lectures, exercises, oral presentations and discussion of reading materials. The lectures will partly be based on interteaching sequences using literature from the curriculum. Internet-based exercises consisting of programmed instructions will be used.

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

Individual written examination with invigilation, 4 hours. Exam questions are in English. Students may submit their exams in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

None

Grade scale A-F

One internal and one external examiner will assess all exams.

Grade scale A-F

One internal and one external examiner will assess all exams.