Posted: September 13th, 2017

Clicker training for dogs

Clicker training for dogs

Paper details:
Literature Review Paper
The review should focuses on basic and/or applied research in the psychology of learning. For example, if a student were to
choose the topic of phobias, then the literature review might address behavioral theories of how phobias are formed or behavioral treatments of phobias.Whichever topic is selected, the literature review should be of research articles in the primary research literature (in other words, the course textbook, Wikipedia, etc., are off limits). Students are not
expected to read and incorporate into the review every article that is relevant to their topic. Instead, the primary goals for this assignment are for students to learn how to 1) find research relevant to the
psychology of learning, 2) correctly interpret that research, and 3) express in writing what they’ve learned from a review of the literature.
Recommendations for Getting Started:
Reading the primary research literature is not easy. Research articles are written in a way that is geared
more to fellow experts than to novices. Therefore, someone unfamiliar with the topic may struggle to
understand terminology and theoretical issues that appear in the paper, and the fine points of the
method and results. To make things more manageable, students are recommended to pick a topic that
interests them, and about which they are already somewhat familiar. Also, students should first look at
some behavioristic articles pertaining to this topic to make sure that they can make sense of the articles
they find before committing to writing a paper on that topic.
Students are welcome to use the textbook and other sources for understanding, even if those works are
not to be quoted or cited in the paper. For example, Chapter 2 in the textbook can be used to help
understand the so-called single-subject experimental designs that are used in much of the literature.
Skinner’s famous 1953 book Science and Human Behavior may also be helpful. It provides a behavioristic
interpretation of many phenomena in psychology, and it can be found here (as a .pdf file).
The UND library has a subscription to PsycINFO, which is an excellent resource for finding research
articles. When you conduct a search you can use phrases like “behavior analysis”, or “behavioral” to find
articles that link the topic you have selected to the material covered in this course. Click on the “Find It
@ UND” link which appears below the article summaries when you perform a search to get access to the
full article (the library carries subscriptions to many journals, and this works in most cases).
Writing should be clear and concise and follow APA requirements. Thus, APA-formatted Title page and
References section. Abstract can be skipped. No Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion because this
is a literature review, not empirical research.
What to Include in the Paper:
1. The paper should initially indicate why behavioral research is conducted in this area, and what,
generally speaking, are goals of this research (this may not be explicitly indicated in the articles you
read, but it should be possible to infer what researchers are trying to accomplish after reading several
related articles). Depending on whether the articles you see involve basic or applied research, the goals
likely relate to either understanding how the behavior of interest relates to the environment (that is,
individual learning and experience), or to how to best create behavioral change.
2. The paper should then provide a summary of research in this area. For example, what types of
populations have researchers worked with, what methods have researchers used, and what discoveries
have they made? It is appropriate to both speak generally about research in the area and to provide
concrete examples / details about procedures, findings, etc.
3. Finally, the paper should make a concluding statement regarding the contributions of behavioral
research in the selected area.
4. Use APA formatting and include a title page and References section. An abstract is not needed.
How the Paper will be Graded:
The paper is worth 100 points. Sixty points are allotted for the completeness and accuracy of the review
(meaning that the paper includes the four things listed above, the selected articles are appropriate, and
the information that is conveyed is accurate). Thirty points are allotted for writing quality and 10 points
for APA formatting.
As I stated above, students are not expected to incorporate into their review every relevant article on
the topic (for many topics, the relevant literature consists of dozens or even hundreds of papers).