Adaptive Learning and the Human Condition

Jeffrey C. Levy’s professional career at Seton Hall University may be divided into three stages, BC, DC, and AC (before, during, and after his 24-year term as chair of the Department of Psychology).  Frequently recognized for teaching excellence, he received the Deans Advisory Council’s Outstanding Teacher Award for the College of Arts & Sciences, Sears-Roebuck Award for College Teaching and Campus Leadership, and was twice nominated by Seton Hall for National CASE Professor of the Year recognition.  Trained as an experimental psychologist with interests in behavior modification, Levy regularly taught the undergraduate Learning course with and without a related animal laboratory and a graduate course in Behavior Modification.  A sabbatical opportunity subsequent to his service as chair enabled him to dedicate a year to elaborating upon this teaching experience and drafting Adaptive Learning and the Human Condition.

In this Section:
1) Brief Table of Contents

2) Full Table of Contents

 

 

BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 

Part 1:  A Science of Adaptive Learning

Chapter 1:  Science, Psychology, and Adaptive Learning

Chapter 2:  Adaptive Learning Research Methods   

Part 2:  Predictive Learning

Chapter 3:  Predictive Learning: Basic Principles and Phenomena

Chapter 4:  Predictive Learning: Basic Variables and Theoretical Issues 

Chapter 5:  Predictive Learning: Applications        

Part 3:  Control Learning

Chapter 6:  Control Learning: Basic Principles and Phenomena    

Chapter 7:  Control Learning: Basic Variables and Theoretical Issues   

Chapter 8:  Control Learning: Applications  

Chapter 9:  Schedules of Reward and Maintenance of Learned Behavior

Part 4:  The Human Condition

Chapter 10:  Personality, Socialization, and Culture

Chapter 11:  Becoming Human and Transforming the Human Condition

Chapter 12: Becoming Human through Indirect Social Learning

Chapter 13:  Individual and Cultural Self-Actualization

Chapter 14:  Self-Actualization through Self-Control  


 FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 

Part 1:  A Science of Adaptive Learning

Chapter 1.  Science, Psychology, and Adaptive Learning

The Human Condition      Explanation and Empiricism      

The Scientific Method     

Early History of Psychology      

Psychology Today   

Scientific Explanation in Psychology   

Where Does Psychology Look for Explanations?   

Definitions of Learning

Direct and Indirect Learning  

Summary   

Key Terms

 

Chapter 2.  Adaptive Learning Research Methods

Internal and External Validity     

Non-Experimental Research Methods   

Experimental Research Methods   

Adaptive Learning Research Methods and External Validity    

Summary   

Key Terms

 

Part 2.  Predictive Learning

Chapter 3.  Predictive Learning: Basic Principles and Phenomena  

Pavlov’s classical conditioning paradigm  

Measurement Procedures   

Basic predictive learning phenomena   

Predictive learning schema with excitatory and inhibitory stimuli      

Summary   

Key Terms

 

Chapter 4.  Predictive Learning: Basic Variables and Theoretical Issues  

Variables influencing predictive learning  

Theoretical Issues

Summary   

Key Terms

 

Chapter 5.  Predictive Learning: Applications     

Basic and applied science     

Direct classical conditioning of emotions      

Indirect classical conditioning of emotions     

Desensitization and sensitization procedures    

Classical conditioning of word meaning  

Classical conditioning of attitudes    

Classical conditioning of drug tolerance     

Summary     

Key Terms

 

Part 3.  Control Learning

Chapter 6.  Control Learning: Basic Principles and Phenomena  

Thorndike and Skinner         

Apparatuses used to study control learning     

Skinner’s contingency schema     

Adaptive learning overview of predictive and control learning  

Learned and unlearned appetitive and aversive stimuli  

Discriminative stimuli and warning stimuli     

Stimulus-response chains     

Basic control learning phenomena

Species specific characteristics and control learning

Other basic control learning phenomena    

Summary     

Key Terms

 

Chapter 7.  Control Learning: Basic Variables and Theoretical Issues  

Variables influencing control learning    

Theoretical issues

Summary   

Key Terms

 

Chapter 8:  Control Learning: Applications  

Speech and Language (verbal symbolic behavior)

Parenting   

Treating behavioral problems with non-verbal individuals   

Treating behavioral problems with verbal individuals

Empirically validated therapeutic techniques

Using technology to facilitate control learning

Relapse prevention

Summary   

Key Terms

 

Chapter 9.  Schedules of Reward and Maintenance of Learned Behavior  

Skinnerian methodology

Skinner’s schema of intermittent schedules of reinforcement

Why do ratio schedules produce higher response rates than interval schedules?

Maintenance of learned behavior

Differential reinforcement schedules as alternatives to punishment

Extinction as an alternative to punishment

Non-contingent reinforcement as an alternative to punishment

Summary

Key Terms

 

Part 4.  The Human Condition

Chapter 10.  Personality, Socialization, and Culture  

Multiple schedules, personality, and culture

Stimulus control, baseball, and the human condition

Measuring stimulus control in the laboratory

Determinants of stimulus control test patterns

The peak shift and Spence’s model of discrimination learning

Attention theory and discrimination learning

Summary

Key Terms

 

Chapter 11.  Becoming Human and Transforming the Human Condition   

Concept learning

Learning to learn

Basic research in problem-solving

The general problem-solving process

Tools, technology, and the human condition

The phonetic alphabet and Arabic numbering system

Summary

Key Terms

 

Chapter 12.  Becoming Human through Indirect Social Learning  

Observational learning

Speech and language

Preparing for school and the 3 Rs

Summary

Key Terms

 

Chapter 13.  Individual and Cultural Self-Actualization  

The Nukak’s physiological needs

The Nukak’s shelter and safety needs

The Nukak’s love and interpersonal needs

The Nukak’s esteem needs

The Nukak’s self-actualization needs

Our physiological needs

Our shelter and safety needs

Our love and interpersonal needs

Developmental tasks and stages for the Nukak and us

Our esteem needs

Our self-actualization needs

Bridges, globalization, and the human condition

Summary

Key Terms

 

Chapter 14.  Self-Actualization through Self-Control  

Concurrent schedules and the matching law

Self-control – magnitude and delay of reinforcement

Matching, impulsiveness, and adaptive learning

Determinism and Freedom

Lightning, sharks, and human predators

Will Power and Self-Control

Self-Control as Problem Solving

Improving the human condition through humanistic ecology

Summary

Key Terms