Animal Research

• advantages:

  • can control genetic makeup

  • can control animal’s learning history

  • can control environment entirely

  • some research can’t be ethically conducted with humans

• disadvantages:

  • animals should have rights similar to humans

  • findings may have limited application to humans

How do we measure behavior?

• operationalize your definitions

• record behavior

  • rate of response / frequency

  • intensity / magnitude of behavior

  • speed of behavior, start to finish

  • time required for behavior to begin (latency)

  • interval recording - continuous intervals

  • time-sample recording - discontinuous intervals

  • topography: observing physical form of the behavior

Assessing Reliability (repeatability)

• interrater reliability: measures the degree to which 2+ coders agree

Research Designs

• experimental research - establishes cause and effect

  • group design: manipulate 1+ IVs across group

  • comparative design: independent species are dif IVs

• single-subject design

  • pros: only need one subject, is individualized, statistical tests may not be needed to determine if there are meaningful changes in behavior, can have precise control over the variables

  • cons: does behavior revert to baseline after treatment is revoked?

    • inappropriate for situations when treatment intended to produce a long-lasting effect

    • ethically inappropriate to remove treatment once improvement is obtained

    • to get around these: use multiple baseline design

Multiple-Baseline Design

• treatment is instituted at successive points in time for 2+ persons, settings, or behaviors

  • pros: don’t have to return to baseline, can produce permanent change in behavior

  • cons: treatment effect might generalize across dif settings / behaviors before treatment instituted