learning and motivation 2/2/22
- 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