Programming for Behavioral Research
Build, deploy, and run a real online resurgence experiment, from the three-phase paradigm through participant recruitment on Prolific and analysis of the data you collect.
Learning objectives
What you will be able to do
- Describe resurgence and the three-phase acquisition, DRA, and test paradigm used to study it.
- Identify the independent and dependent variables in a resurgence preparation and justify their selection.
- Build a web-based behavioral task that records responding trial by trial.
- Implement the informed consent, demographics, and debriefing components an IRB-compliant online study requires.
- Deploy a working experiment and recruit human participants through an online panel.
- Analyze the resulting dataset and interpret responding during the resurgence test.
Why this course exists
Most behavior analysts who want to run an online experiment reach for a survey platform, then spend weeks fighting it to do something it was never built to do. Survey tools collect responses. They do not run trials, schedule reinforcement, or record what a participant did and when.
This course takes the other path: you build the experiment yourself. By the end you will have a working resurgence preparation deployed on the open web, real participants recruited through Prolific, and a dataset you collected.
No prior web development experience is assumed.
What you will build
An online resurgence experiment: the three-phase preparation used to study how a previously suppressed response returns when conditions worsen for a more recently reinforced alternative.
Phase 1: Acquisition
A target response (R1) is reinforced, establishing behavioral history.
Phase 2: DRA
R1 is placed on extinction while an alternative response (R2) is reinforced. Alternative reinforcement rate, phase duration, and degree of suppression are the variables in play.
Phase 3: Resurgence test
Alternative reinforcement is reduced or eliminated, and you measure whether R1 returns. Rate of the target response during this phase is the primary dependent variable.
Resurgence is robust across nonhuman animals, typically developing humans, and clinical populations, which is what makes it a good fit for online preparations and a reasonable place to start building.
How the course runs
Twelve lessons, each pairing the conceptual work with a working implementation you build and run:
| Lesson | Focus |
|---|---|
| Introduction & prerequisites | Environment setup, accounts, tooling |
| Our task | Resurgence, the three-phase design, variables of interest |
| Your first project | Project scaffolding and structure |
| Participant ID & consent | Payment verification, IRB-compliant consent |
| Demographics & instructions | Participant intake, task instructions |
| The trial | The experimental paradigm itself |
| Debrief | Completion codes and participant debriefing |
| Deploying | Putting the experiment on the live web |
| Recruiting | Running the study on Prolific |
You will work in Next.js, PostgreSQL, Prisma, and TypeScript to build the task, then Python and Pandas to analyze what comes back. Claude Code is used throughout as a development assistant.
Who this is for
Behavior analysts and behavioral data scientists who want to run studies their current tools cannot support. The methodology content assumes familiarity with single-case design and reinforcement schedules at the level of graduate coursework in behavior analysis; the programming content assumes nothing.
Before you enroll
The course uses four third-party services, and you will need your own account with each. We have no affiliation with any of them; they are simply the tools the work runs on.
| Service | What it does | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code (Anthropic) | Development assistant used throughout | Paid Claude subscription or Console credits |
| Prolific | Participant recruitment | You fund your own participant payments |
| Vercel | Deploying the experiment | Free tier is sufficient |
| Neon | Database hosting | Free tier is sufficient |
Set these up before you start. Prolific in particular requires identity verification that can take a day or more, so leave time for it.
Required disclosures
Credit, authorization, and how to raise a concern
- ACE Provider
- BehaviorChain LLCBT Learning Lab is a product of BehaviorChain LLC. Continuing education credit is issued under the ACE Provider name BehaviorChain LLC, which is the name that appears on your documentation.
- Provider number
- OP-26-12380
- ACE Coordinator
- Jacob Sosine
- Credit awarded
- 7 CEUs
- Format
- On demand
- Published
- August 10, 2026
- Instructors
- Dr. David J. Cox · Ph.D., M.S.B., BCBA-DBioethicist, behavior analyst, behavioral economist, and data scientist with more than 20 years in the field and over 70 peer-reviewed publications.Jacob Sosine · M.A., M.B.A., B.C.B.A.Board Certified Behavior Analyst and data scientist; founder of BehaviorChain LLC, where he builds research and training software for behavior analysis.
- Affiliations
- None. We hold no financial or other affiliation with any company, product, or service featured during this course.
- Scope of authorization
- The BACB® does not review or approve individual events offered by ACE Providers. Authorization as an ACE Provider does not imply BACB® endorsement or approval of this course's content.
- Complaints
- Submit concerns in writing to our ACE Coordinator, Jacob Sosine, through our contact form. If your complaint is not sufficiently resolved, you may file a Notice of Alleged Violation with the BACB® against the ACE Coordinator.