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APSC 5134: Applied Behavior Analysis for Animal Behaviorists

Concentration: Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare
Credits: 3 graduate credits (required for AABW concentration)

Description

Applied behavior analysis and behaviorism as applied to animals. Pavlovian and operant conditioning principles to applied settings with animals, including domestic animal training and behavior consultations, captive exotic behavioral husbandry and training. Environmental manipulations including antecedent events and consequences to effect desirable behavior change. Functional relations to determine environmental causes of behavior. Common training practices in the context of evidence-based principles.

Learning Objectives

Having successfully completed this course, the student will be able to:

  1. Illustrate the environmental determinants of behavior using objective and technical language
  2. Synthesize the effects of antecedent and consequent events on behavior
  3. Compare and contrast the function and structure of behavior
  4. Discriminate the multiple functions stimuli can have for a behavior and the interactions of Pavlovian and operant conditioning
  5. Analyze everyday human-animal interactions for their possible influence on behavior
  6. Analyze training approaches for their possible main effects and side-effects on behavior and how those fit in the humane hierarchy

Syllabus

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Graduate Standing

Instructor(s)

Erica Feuerbacher