Psychology Lecturer Stephanie Wells is incorporating artificial intelligence into her spring 2024 Psychology 3110 course, Learning & Motivation, which focuses on psychological theories and research on behavior change and behavioral research.
Wells said a key component of the course is a semester-long “behavior change” project for which students collect and analyze data. For the project, each student conducts a single-subject experiment in which they teach themselves, another person or an animal a new skill (or end a current behavior) using concepts learned in the course such as shaping, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and so on.
An essential part of the project is students identifying barriers to change before, during and at the end of the project in their final presentations. Wells said many students struggle to anticipate barriers they may encounter, particularly at the beginning of the project, or in submitting their topics for instructor feedback or approval.
This semester, she is encouraging students to use simple generative AI, specifically the free version of ChatGPT, to aid in brainstorming as a formal assignment done one to two weeks after students submit their project topics and before they begin collecting data. Students will construct prompts for generative AI in an assignment titled “AI brainstorming assignment,” with a goal of generating ideas and recommendations for how to change the particular behavior proposed as a project topic and anticipated barriers to that change.
In this activity, students address issues related to AI—from whether it is an inappropriate form of citation to AI as a reliable source of scientific literature. Students are being required to choose and critically evaluate four to five of the AI-generated suggestions and proposed barriers. They will investigate the validity and source of AI-provided information by using other course resources to find scientific literature on ideas and claims identified by AI. The textbook may be included as a reference, but students will be required to identify a minimum of three scientific articles in the brainstorming assignment.
Wells said the assignment will open students to the possibilities offered by AI while providing them with tools to think critically about behavioral research, in general, and about the validity and reliability of information provided by popular AI generators, in particular.
College of Arts and Sciences Dean Pam Riggs-Gelasco funded a $250 stipend for Wells for her efforts to incorporate AI into a course assignment.