ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY – FALL - 2002

EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING – PSY 3270

Miguel Roig, Ph.D.

OFFICE HOURS: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 10:05 am to 11:05 pm, Rosati Hall.

REQUIRED TEXT: Barker, L. M. (2001). Learning and Behavior (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: This course offers the student a broad overview of contemporary learning theory from the viewpoint of classical and operant conditioning, including interpretation of the role of drives and motives and concepts of generalization, discrimination, emotions, and higher forms of learning.

CLASS EXAMINATIONS AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS: There will be 5 50-question multiple-choice examinations. The first 2 exams will cover 3 chapters and the last three exams will cover 2 chapters. If you miss an exam, for whatever reason, you may make it up ONLY during the week of final exams (either right after your last exam or on two other dates that will be announced when the final exam schedule is made public). Only 2 make-up exams will be allowed in addition to exam no. 5. If you choose to write a paper (see below) the grade for the paper may be used to substitute the lowest exam score. Most lecture material, as well as, exam questions will be taken from the textbook readings. However, not all textbook-material will be covered in class lectures and some questions may be derived from research excerpts that will be periodically e-mailed to you. Be sure to be on time everyday, but particularly on exam days as you will not be allowed extra time to complete an exam if you are late. You are required to bring a no. 2 pencil to all examinations. Be sure to include the date, exam section number, your name, and social security number on the answer sheet. You are not to make any marks on the exam paper. Failure to complete an exam answer sheet in pencil or to include the necessary information may result in a "0" for that exam.

ATTENDANCE: Attendance and punctuality are extremely important in this course. Although class participation is not going to be formally graded (or the lack of it penalized), it is obviously encouraged. Class participation constitutes asking a question or making a comment when the student raises his or her hand and the instructor calls on the student. During lectures, no other interaction between students will be tolerated. I reserve the right to dismiss from class any student who, in my view, is disruptive. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to obtain class notes from your peers. Please note that I do not repeat lecture material. Also, during class participation, the words "prove", "proven", "sort of", "like a" and "society" (as an explanatory concept) are not to be used when answering questions or writing the paper.

E-MAIL DISTRIBUTION LIST: During the first week of classes, you are to send me an e-mail message with your full name, student number, and course section (e.g., PSY 3270, MWF: 1:25 PM-2:20 PM). The e-mail message should also include an arbitrary 4 digit-letter combination (e.g., 3j4k) that will be used as your identification code when the grades are e-mailed to the class. Please do not reveal this code to anyone, as grades will be mailed to the entire class with each student’s 4 digit-letter code as identifier.

The primary reason for sending me an e-mail is to include your e-mail address in our class’ e-mail distribution list. This list consists of the e-mail addresses of all of the members of the class and will make it easy for me to send pertinent messages (e.g., announcements, excerpts of studies related course material) to the entire class. Please use whichever e-mail address (school or home) you consult most frequently. You should know that each of you has a St. John’s University e-mail address which consists of your first initial, followed by the first 4 letters of your last name followed by the last 3 numbers of your social security number @stjohns.edu. Thus, for example, if your name was Juan Gonzales and your social security number was 150-57-4643, your e-mail address at St. John’s would be jgonz643@stjohns.edu. For all e-mail correspondence with me, you must indicate your full name and course number and section in your signature. Also, please avoid using cyberlingo (e.g., “dat’s for u 2 know” which translates to “that’s for you to know”); in your e-mail correspondence with me as I do not acknowledge or respond to messages using such language. Write your messages using proper English and follow correct grammatical and spelling practices.

MONITORING YOUR GRADES - You should always know your academic standing for this course. The following is the grading system used in all of my classes.

00.00 - 56.99 ----- F 57.00 - 63.99 ------ D- 64.00 - 67.99 ------ D 68.00 - 69.99 ------ D+
70.00 - 72.99 ----- C- 73.00 - 76.99 ------ C 77.00 - 79.99 ------ C+ 80.00 - 82.99 ------ B-
83.00 - 86.99 ----- B+ 87.00 - 89.99 ------ B+ 90.00 - 92.99 ------ A- 93.00 - 100 ------- A

MY GRADING POLICY- Most people connected with academia will agree with the notion that grade inflation exists even at the university level. Grade inflation may be defined as follows: The grades that students receive today are somewhat higher than those received by students in earlier times who did the same level/quality of academic work. Thus, work that would have earned a student a C, say, 30 years ago now may get him/her a C+, B- or higher. In spite of the fact that I am perceived to be a hard grader, too often in my own classes I have seen the need to ‘curve’ students’ grades. As a result, I believe that I have invariably contributed to the problem of grade inflation. In view of this situation, I have decided to adopt a policy similar to the one developed by Dr. Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., a professor of Government at Harvard. Essentially, what Dr. Mansfield does is to award students two grades, one ‘official’ (i.e., inflated) which is sent to the registrar and will appear in the student’s transcript, and a lower, unofficial grade that he calculates based on a formula that he has devised. Thus, following on professor Mansfield’s footsteps, I will also award you two grades at the end of the semester. The ‘official’ grade will be the presumably inflated one that is based on examination curves and any other similar ‘adjustments’. This ‘official’ grade will be the grade that will appear in the student’s transcript. The ‘unofficial’ grade, the one that in my view more accurately reflects your performance in my class, will only be given privately to each student and it will be based on the students’ performance based on ‘uncurved’ exams, attendance, and my own personal assessment of the student’s academic performance. Only you, the student, will receive the unofficial grade.

SUGGESTIONS: It is extremely important that the student come to class prepared to assimilate the assigned readings (READ THE BOOK!!!). It is also highly recommended that students, particularly those that plan to attend graduate school, write a paper and that, in doing so, you thoroughly think about the paper early in the semester so that the project may be conducted within sufficient time. In spite of what you believe waiting until the last minute to do the paper will invariably result in a poorer product.

DETAILS ABOUT THE OPTIONAL PAPER: The paper is due no later than November 25^th (the last day of class before Thanksgiving Break). It will consist of a comparison of two research articles relevant to some specific aspect of conditioning. A list of the articles that you may use will be made available shortly.

For the two papers you select, you first summarize each study by addressing the following questions: What was the study about; what was the problem? What did the authors find? And what is the importance of the study, that is, how does it contribute to the literature and understanding of the problem? In the body of your paper you must identify the studies' hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, and the theoretical underpinnings of the study. After the summaries, you must compare and contrast both studies by pointing out the similarities and differences in their procedure, overall results, and conclusions.

Your paper should be approximately 6 to 10 long (excluding the references page, tile page, and abstract page). It should be typed double-spaced with one-inch margins throughout and 12-point font. Use regular bond paper and apply the style suggested by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (on reserve in the library; see also relevant web links in the on-line version of the course outline). The title page should have the full citation of the articles that you are going to summarize along with your name. If you cite any references from within the article you should consult the APA manual, a research methods book, or the various websites available on APA style (for example, for pointers on APA style, point your browser HERE). The paper must be free of misspellings and grammatically correct. Incomplete sentences, poor punctuation, etc., will result in a loss of points. For example, for each misspelled word or incorrect grammatical construction I will deduct 2 points from the final grade assigned to the paper. Do not use any type of covers with the paper. In addition, there will be a penalty of 5 points, for each day that the paper is late and for any other infraction of the rules outlined above.

For details about how I grade papers point your browser HERE

IMPORTANT: Submit the paper in a manila envelope and include the following:

a. Copies of the 2 journal articles used in the paper.

b. The articles must have markings (e.g., underlining) indicating those sections that were used to write your paper.

c. At least one TYPED early draft of the paper with evidence of substantial revisions and corrections penciled-in on the draft. Handwritten drafts or those with only corrected spelling errors are not acceptable.

d. A computer diskette containing two files of your paper. One file must correspond to the paper as it appears in the final typed version. Another file must consist of a single-spaced version excluding the title page, abstract, references and tables of data. Alternatively, these documents may be e-mailed to me as Microsoft Word file attachments.

All materials may be returned to the student. However, you should keep a copy of your paper for your records. Please note that it may be difficult to locate appropriate articles for this project in our campus library and even in our library at the Queens campus. Keep this in mind and do not wait until late in the semester to write the paper.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Any student caught cheating on any examination will receive a "0" for that examination. Such examination will not be dropped and will count toward your final grade and the incident will be reported to the Dean of Students. In many cases, it is not easy to tell if a student has been looking at the next paper or not. In those cases, the student will be warned once, and IF THE EYES WANDER AGAIN IT WILL BE ASSUMED THAT THE STUDENT IS CHEATING. During examinations, turn your paper over when you have finished and either take a nap or just remain silent. Do not read or start talking or looking around the room, etc., since if you do it will be assumed that you are attempting to help someone else--a form of cheating for which you will be penalized exactly as outlined above. While taking an examination, all papers, notes, books, etc. must be placed under your chair.

If PLAGIARISM or any other type of academic dishonesty is detected in any of your work, it will result in an automatic F for that assignment. Please note that for each sentence plagiarized I will deduct one full grade from the paper. See examples below for various forms of plagiarism and correct paraphrasing.

GUIDE TO CORRECT PARAPHRASING AND AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

TENTATIVE READING ASSIGNMENTS (Underlined dates will be exam days).

M W F

09- 04, 06 - Course overview. Barker’s Introduction and chapt. 1.

09- 09, 11, 13 - Barker’s chapt. 1 and Anderson, chapters 1 & 2 (on reserve). Barker’s chapt. 2.

09- 16, 18, 20 - Barker’s chapts. 2 & 3

09- NC, 25, 27 - Barker’s 3 -- EXAM 1 (09/27 coves chapts. 1, 2, & 3 and Anderson’s readings).

09- 30 - Barker’s chapt. 4

10- 02, 04 - Barker’s chapt. 4 & 5.

10- 07, 09, 11 - Barker’s chapts. 5 & 6.

10- NC,16, 18 - (EXAM 2 on 10/16 covering Barker’s chapts. 4, 5, & 6). We cover Barker’s chapt. 7 on the 18^th.

10- 21, 23, 25 - Barker’s chapts. 7 & 8

10- 28, 30 - Barker’s chapts. 8 & 9.

11- NC -

11- 04, 06, 08 - (EXAM 3 on 11/04 covering Barker’s chapts. 7, 8, & 9). Cover Barker’s chapt. 10 on the 6^th and 8^th.

11- 11, 13, 15 - Barker’s chapts. 11 & 14

11- 18, 20, 22 - Cover chapt. 14 on the 18^th. (EXAM 4 on 11/20 on chapts.10, 11, &14. Cover chapt.15 on the 22^nd.

11- 25,NC,NC - Barker’s chapt. 15.

12- 02, 04, 06 - Barker’s chapts. 16 and 17.

12- 09, NC,13 - Barker’s chapt. 17 .

12/14 TO 12/20 FINAL EXAM WEEK- EXAM 5 – (covering chapters 15, 16 & 17)

It is expected that students conduct themselves as respectful adults and in accordance with university tradition: To remain silent and attentive while I am lecturing or while a fellow student is asking a question; to clean up your area if you have littered it, etc. No smoking, food, or beverages are allowed in class.

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Sign and return to the professor by the second week of class. Note: You may not be given credit for this course unless I have this portion of the course outline in my possession (Cut with scissors along the dotted line; ripped stubs are not acceptable). CHANGES: I reserve the right to change or add to assignments and make changes to this course outline, for good reason and with adequate notice.

I _____________________________________ have received a copy of the course outline for Introduction to Psychology (PSY 2150). I have read the course outline and have reviewed the on-line version at http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~roigm. I have been given an opportunity to discuss and ask questions about the content of these documents and understand and agree to the requirements of this course.

Student’s signature: _______________________________ Date: _________ Student No.: _____________