Chapter 7
1. What is the active process of making meaning out of another person’s spoken message?
a. hearing
b. acknowledging
c. understanding
d. listening
2. Which of the following statements about listening is true, according to your text?
a. Listening is an innate ability.
b. People spend more time listening than speaking.
c. Everyone who listens to a message hears the same thing.
d. Hearing is the same as listening.
3. Which of the following statements about the importance of listening is NOT true?
a. Employers tend to rank listening skills as one of the most important factors in effective
management.
b. A survey of family interaction showed that listening was the most important communication
skill.
c. Listening has little to no effect on our physical health beyond avoiding sounds that may
induce hearing loss.
d. Listening skills are important in the workplace for promoting safety, productivity, and
satisfaction.
4. After a lengthy meeting with the boss and several of his coworkers, Alex asked his friend
Jeff if he was concerned about the number of layoffs that his boss said were coming. Jeff
looked puzzled for a moment before telling Alex that he wasn’t sure when exactly their boss
had said to expect layoffs. That exchange reflects which of the following myths of listening?
a. All listeners hear the same thing.
b. Listening is natural and effortless.
c. Hearing is the same as listening.
d. People vividly recall information that they hear.
5. In the HURIER model of effective listening, the “I” stands for what?
a. internal thoughts
b. interviewing
c. interpreting
d. intellect
6. On average, we are able to remember about ________ of what we hear.
a. 95%
b. 75%
c. 50%
d. 25%
7. A(n) ________ device is a memory aid that helps people recall important information.
a. memory enhancement
b. mnemonic
c. recall
d. alliteration
8. According to your text, which of the following statements correctly represents the two parts
of interpretation?
a. Focus on the subjective meaning of the speaker’s message; and gauge the truthfulness of his
or her claim.
b. Understand the point of view the speaker represents; and assign a mental interpretation of his
or her statement based on that understanding.
c. Pay attention to all of the speaker’s verbal and nonverbal messages; and signal your
interpretation back to the speaker.
d. Interpret the speaker’s message carefully; and remember your interpretation for future
interactions with the speaker.
9. Which type of listening response includes the use of head nods, facial expressions, and short
utterances such as “uh–huh” that signal your interest to the speaker?
a. pseudolistening
b. engaging
c. supporting
d. backchanneling
10. Which form of listening occurs when you are trying to experience what another person is
thinking or feeling?
a. critical
b. empathic
c. informational
d. passive
11. We engage in which form of listening when our goal is to evaluate or analyze what we’re
hearing?
a. informational
b. analytical
c. critical
d. empathic
12. Which type of listener engages messages for the intellectual challenges; in other words, he or
she likes to think things through?
a. content-oriented listener
b. action-oriented listener
c. information-oriented listener
d. intellectual-oriented listener
13. According to your text, which of the following could qualify as noise?
a. loud music
b. feeling hungry
c. being too hot
d. all of these
14. Rachel finished her oral exam in her Spanish class, and her teacher Señora Lopez evaluated
her performance. Although Rachel did well on the exam, and most of Señora Lopez’s
comments were positive, Rachel focused only on the negative critiques and felt very bad
about her performance. Rachel just engaged in which of the following behaviors?
a. pseudolistening
b. content-oriented listening
c. selective attention
d. negative attention bias
15. According to your textbook, people might interrupt for all of the following reasons EXCEPT
a. to qualify a speaker’s concerns.
b. to take control of the conversation.
c. to express enthusiasm for what the speaker is saying.
d. to stop the speaker and ask for clarification.
16. How is pseudolistening related to glazing over?
a. They are the same thing.
b. You’re actually listening during glazing over, but not during pseudolistening.
c. You’re actually listening during pseudolistening, but not during glazing over.
d. Glazing over involves pretending to listen, but pseudolistening does not.
17. Dan is an atheist who has a keen interest in politics. Whenever Dan is watching a debate and
one of the candidates mentions his or her belief or interest in God, Dan stops listening to that
candidate. Sometimes, he’ll even change his vote if a candidate he likes mentions God too
frequently. Which of the following listening barriers describes Dan?
a. rebuttal tendency
b. closed-mindedness
c. attack listening
d. information overload
18. Asking follow-up questions to confirm our interpretations of someone else’s statements is a
strategy for
a. separating what is said from what isn’t said.
b. avoiding the vividness effect.
c. minimizing the effect of a confirmation bias.
d. evaluating the speaker’s credibility.
19. The tendency to pay attention only to information that supports our values and beliefs is
called what?
a. vividness effect
b. mere exposure effect
c. valuation bias
d. confirmation bias
20. Which of the following statements is true about being skeptical?
a. It is the same as being cynical.
b. It is about evaluating the evidence for a claim.
c. It is about finding fault with a claim.
d. It harms a listener’s credibility.
21. Which of the following statements about credibility is FALSE?
a. Credibility is a measure of how reliable and trustworthy someone is.
b. Experience and expertise are the same thing.
c. Biases can affect a speaker’s credibility.
d. Sometimes research is necessary to determine someone’s credibility.
22. Regarding probability, which of the following statements is true?
a. A statement is certain if its likelihood of being true is at least 95%.
b. To be possible, a statement has to have greater than a 50% chance of being true.
c. A statement is possible if there is even the slightest chance, however small, that it might be
true.
d. No statement has a 0% chance of being true.
23. Which of the following techniques will NOT help people improve their empathic skills?
a. listening non-judgmentally to the speaker
b. acknowledging the speaker’s feelings
c. encouraging the speaker to focus on what he or she still has, instead of what was lost
d. communicating support to the speaker nonverbally
24. Hearing is a passive process; listening is an active process.
25. Research indicates that most people spend more time talking than listening.
26. The evaluation stage of listening involves making a value judgment about the merits of what
someone else has said.
27. Part of effective listening is responding appropriately to what you hear.
28. Critical listening is more passive than informational listening.
29. Empathic listening means feeling sorry for someone else.
30. Information overload can impair our ability to listen effectively.
31. The average person speaks less than 150 words per minute.
32. Research shows that most interruptions are competitive.
33. The vividness effect is the tendency of dramatic, shocking events to distort our perceptions of
reality.
34. Listening nonjudgmentally is important for effective critical listening.
Answer: False
Bloom’s: Understand
Short-Answer Questions
(Answers will vary.)
35. Pick three of the six elements of Brownell’s model. Define and give examples of each.
Bloom’s: Understand
36. Using concrete examples, compare and contrast hearing and listening.
Bloom’s: Understand
37. Define critical listening and note how it is similar to, and different than, informational
listening.
Bloom’s: Understand
38. What is information overload? Where does it come from and how can it be avoided?
Bloom’s: Understand
39. How are men and women different in the information they attend to while listening?
Bloom’s: Understand
40. Explain the concept of probability. Using concrete examples, illustrate what possibility,
probability, and certainty are.
Bloom’s: Understand
Essay Questions
(Answers will vary.)
41. Your textbook talks about a number of studies that have consistently shown that the majority
of people tend to think they are very good listeners. Take a minute to evaluate your own
listening skills honestly. What listening habits have you developed that make you a good
listener? What could you improve on to become a better listener? Are the strengths or
challenges you presented confined to a certain social or relational context (e.g., work, school,
familial relationships, romantic relationships)?
Bloom’s: Apply
42. Which kind of listener (people-oriented, action-oriented, content-oriented, or time-oriented)
are you? In your answer, explain what your listening style means and give examples from
your own life that illustrate how that style fits you best. If you feel you are a blend of two
styles, illustrate how.
Bloom’s: Analyze
43. Imagine that you are a skills trainer for a local community center and you’ve been asked to
give a talk to troubled couples about the importance of listening. In order to help these
couples, you decide to focus your presentation on several barriers to effective listening. Pick
at least three of the barriers identified in your textbook. For each, define the listening barrier,
come up with an example of the behavior that is appropriate for your audience, and then
suggest at least two ways that these couples can avoid the problems associated with that
barrier in their relationships.
Bloom’s: Apply
44. Your text discusses the confirmation bias as a barrier to effective informational listening, but
it can actually be a barrier to critical and empathic listening as well. Explain what the
confirmation bias is, and then use concrete examples to illustrate how it can impair each type
of listening: informational, critical, and empathic.
Bloom’s: Analyze
45. Advertising campaigns often make exaggerated or untrue claims and hope that at least some
consumers will believe them. Think of an advertisement you have seen or heard lately that
makes claims that are likely exaggerated or simply untrue. Describe the advertisement and
highlight the suspect claim(s). Next, using at least three of the ideas presented in the text
and/or class, discuss techniques of better listening that would keep the average consumer
from falling for this advertisement. Make sure to explain how the advertisement takes
advantage of these techniques.
Bloom’s: Apply
46. Imagine that a close friend of yours just found out that his or her mother has died. How
would you respond empathically to your friend’s needs? Specifically, what communication
behaviors would you try to incorporate into your actions with this person? What
communication behaviors would you avoid?
Bloom’s: Apply