PSY 458 is a course designed to introduce the student to the branch of psychology that deals with how people and animals learn, and how their behaviors are later changed as a result of this learning. Because the psychology of learning is such a broad topic, and nearly all of our behaviors are influenced by prior learning experiences in some way, the course will concentrate on providing an understanding of the general principles applicable to many different species and many different learning situations. The course will cover some of the most important principles, theories, controversies, and, of course, experiments that have been produced by this branch of psychology in its first century. For further details, check out the course syllabus.
Prerequisites
Although the course is an upper division course in psychology, the only course prerequisite needed is an introductory course in psychology. However, I would recommend that a student have junior or senior standing before taking the course.
What This Course is About.
This course, PSY 458 Learning, is a course about the scientific study of behavior--behaviorism and the functional analysis of behavior. It presents behaviorism as an attitude and as a doctrine. The course contrasts nicely with its cognitive counterpart, PSY 457 Memory and Cognition. "It has sometimes been said that “behave is what organisms do.” Behaviorism is built on this assumption, and its goal is to promote the scientific study of behavior." This is a quote from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)(revised July, 2005). The SEP goes on to state that the doctrine of Behaviorism argues for the truth of the following three claims:
1. Psychology is the science of behavior. Psychology is not the science of mind.
2. Behavior can be described and explained without making reference to mental events or to internal psychological processes. The sources of behavior are external (in the environment), not internal (in the mind).
3. In the course of theory development in psychology, if, somehow, mental terms or concepts are deployed in describing or explaining behavior, then either (a) these terms or concepts should be eliminated and replaced by behavioral terms or (b) they can and should be translated or paraphrased into behavioral concepts.
We will examine these claims in the context of traditional learning theory as well as briefly examine their cognitive counterparts--for example, a cognitive theory of reinforcement and a cognitive theory of classical conditioning.
