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Chapter 5: Listening and Critical Thinking
Essay Questions
1. Explain in a brief essay the difference between listening and hearing.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
2. Reveal in steps how the process of listening works.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Remember
3. Explain the five kinds of distractions that are called noise.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Remember
4. Sometimes our self gets in the way of effective listening. Explain the concepts of egocentrism, defensiveness, experiential superiority, and
personal bias by telling how each obstructs effective listening.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
5. Provide an explanation of why another person’s status would affect how we listen to him or her.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
6. Explain how stereotypes can negatively affect listening, and give two examples.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
7. Explain the role of working memory in the listening process.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
8. Compare and contrast short-term memory with long-term recall.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
9. Write a dialogue (a scripted conversation between two people) in which you demonstrate verbal skills of effective listening. In the right
margin label each skill.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Apply
10. List and explain at least five nonverbal skills of effective listening.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
11. Write an essay in which you define active listening.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Remember
12. Write an essay in which you reveal the answer to the question, “What is critical thinking?”
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
13. What is the difference between observation and inference? Define the two terms and give an example of each in your essay.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
14. List and explain three ways in which you can check your understanding of a speaker.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
15. What are three ways to be effective at lecture listening?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Remember
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© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
33. Pseudolistening is not really a barrier to effective listening but rather a strategy to avoid listening when you do not want to.
34. When critically thinking about a message, considering the context in which the message is delivered is important in evaluating that message.
35. A person responds by asking, “Are you suggesting that I am not doing my job on this project?” You could classify the res ponse as an
example of defensiveness.
36. “You wouldn’t think that way if you had been a cop as long as I have” is an example of experiential superiority.
37. Egocentrism is defensiveness carried to an extreme.
38. Source credibility is the extent to which a speaker is perceived as competent to make the claims he or she is making.
39. Critical listening challenges the speaker’s message and evaluates its accuracy, meaningfulness, and utility.
40. Active listening is marked by involvement; empathetic listening, by judgment; and critical thinking, by understanding.
41. Critical listening and critical thinking both involve gathering information, ideas, or arguments; establishing a basis for evaluation; and
applying those standards to the information and ideas you have gathered.
42. An effective way to use verbal communication is to be completely silent when engaged in a conversation.
43. “Here is an example of uncertainty reduction theory…” When used by a teacher during a lecture, this statement is an example of a semantic
cue.
44. Americans tend to spend more time reading and writing than listening.
45. Active listening can be defined as involved listening with a purpose.
46. College students tend to spend half of their communication time in face–to-face and mass media listening.
47. To show you are interested in what a speaker is saying, you should try to sit or stand close to the speaker.
48. Long-term memory is a relatively temporary storage place for information.
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49. Empathic listening is essentially the same as active listening with the added provision that it includes a special effort to reach an
understanding with another person.
50. The phrases “This will be on your quiz Friday” and “The second type of listening is …” are examples of
a. lecture cues.
b. nonverbal cues.
c. schema.
d. ethical listening behaviors.
51. Which of the following is an example of a physical distraction to listening.
a. I didn’t know what he said because I was so worried about what the kids were doing in my absence.
b. Are you kidding? All I could think about was my vacation that starts tomorrow.
c. The two people talking in the row ahead of me kept me from catching very much of his lecture.
d. I could not pay attention to anything she said after she mentioned “feminist theory.”
52. Tinnitus is something that would be most likely to affect your
a. nonverbal gestures.
b. listening.
c. hearing.
d. speaking.
53. A person who gets so involved in the particulars that she misses the main point is demonstrating an example of a
a. semantic distraction.
b. factual distraction.
c. mental distraction.
d. physical distraction.
54. Which of the following is an example of hearing rather than listening?
a. He heard what she said and responded with an appropriate answer.
b. The sound of firecrackers filled the nighttime air.
c. He heard the sound outside and decided that the noise must have been a car accident.
d. She heard his cry for help and reacted by immediately calling the rescue squad.
55. Which of the following is not necessarily part of the process of listening?
a. The stimuli are picked up by the ear.
b. The nerves transmit sensations to the brain.
c. The brain assigns meanings to the stimuli.
d. The receiver responds with a return message.
56. Children with higher levels of language development are more likely to
a. have more efficient working memory.
b. have less efficient working memory.
c. develop better hearing skills.
d. develop less effective hearing skills.
57. Based on research reported in chapter 5, to enhance the chance that children will process complex and ambiguous information with less
anxiety parents should
a. read more during family group time.
b. create an environment where children are held to high standards.
c. ensure that their children learn another language.
d. create an environment where multiple topics are discussed in the family.
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Answer: D
Bloom’s level: Remember
58. During a lecture Dr. Washington stated, “Now I will move on to my fourth topic…” What type of lecture cue was Dr. Washington using?
a. semantic
b. importance
c. nonverbal
d. organizational
59. Which two concepts seem most closely related?
a. egocentrism and personal bias
b. defensiveness and self-focus
c. experiential superiority and defensiveness
d. personal bias and defensiveness
60. During a lecture Ms. Anderson stated, “Here is the conclusion you should draw from this example…” What type of lecture cue was Ms.
Anderson using?
a. semantic
b. importance
c. nonverbal
d. organizational
61. College students spend approximately what proportion of their time listening to others and the mass media?
a. 50 percent
b. 25 percent
c. 75 percent
d. 65 percent
62. Which of the following statements about active listening is false?
a. Active listening is “involved listening with a purpose.”
b. Active listening and empathic listening are exactly the same thing.
c. Active listening is characterized by movement, change, and responsiveness on the part of the listener.
d. Active listening implies feedback to the speaker.
63. Which of the following is true about men’s listening behaviors as compared to women’s listening behaviors?
a. Women interrupt more often.
b. Men like more complex information that requires careful evaluation.
c. Women like short, concise communication.
d. Men listen in order to take action and solve problems.
64. Empathic listening differs from active listening in that
a. active listening is one kind of empathic listening.
b. active and empathic listening are both purposeful.
c. empathic listening adds the goal of understanding.
d. empathic listening invites more feedback.
65. “You need to remember this because it will be on the quiz.” What type of lecture cue is this statement?
a. semantic
b. importance
c. nonverbal
d. organizational
66. Which of the following is a limitation of short-term memory?
a. automatic attention
b. inability to access schema
c. lack of stimulus cues from working memory
d. can only hold 5 to 9 bits of information on average
67. Which part of the listening process is responsible for interpreting and assigning meaning to stimuli?
a. attention
b. working memory
c. short-term memory
d. long-term memory
68. Which of the following best exhibits critical thinking?
a. You are able to memorize what you hear.
b. You are able to recall most of what you listen to.
c. You are able to interpret what you hear and apply it to other knowledge.
d. You are able to use what you know to apply standards to what you hear and decide the merits of the message.
69. Which of the following is an inference?
a. I see that road is narrow and curvy.
b. There is no shoulder, and there is no centerline.
c. The road appears dangerous for ordinary travel.
d. The trees grow close to the road, thus reducing light.
70. Jeremy was walking across campus in a hurry. On the way he saw his friend Johnnie, who he hadn’t seen in quite some time. Jeremy stopped
and gave Johnnie his cell phone number and told him to call him later. Just a few seconds after Jeremy left, Johnnie already had forgotten the
number. This would be because the information only went as far as Johnnie’s
a. schema.
b. short-term memory.
c. long-term memory.
d. automatic attention.
71. When you analyze the speaker and the situation to make judgments about the message presented, you are engaging in
a. active listening.
b. critical thinking.
c. second-person observation.
d. long-term memory.
72. You have to give a speech on Hawaii. Which of the following sources would have the best source credibility?
a. a classmate’s friend who watched a TV show about the islands
b. you, because you want to go there
c. a friend who just got back from vacationing there
d. a tabloid that reported two celebrities were staying at a Hawaiian resort
73. Which of the following is not an effective means of using verbal communication when listening?
a. Use evaluative, nondescriptive comments.
b. Ask questions.
c. Provide affirmative and affirming statements.
d. Vary verbal responses.
74. Which of the following is essential to demonstrating active listening?
a. Lean back in your chair.
b. Keep a tense body posture.
c. Sit without crossing your arms or legs.
d. Sit or stand so you are directly facing the speaker.
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
75. When you paraphrase the speaker’s message and intent, ask questions, or invite corrections, you are
a. encountering a barrier to listening.
b. checking your understanding or perception of the speaker.
c. engaging in listening for enjoyment.
d. employing nonverbal listening behaviors.