CHAPTER THREE: LEARNING, MOTIVATION, AND
PERFORMANCE
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. Theories are
A) Useful for model building but impractical for practitioners.
B) Generally developed by all of us to help us understand how
things work in our world.
C) Concrete steps in the “how-to” world.
D) Useful when they describe a set of facts and develop a logical
rationale for what is likely to be true, given those facts.
E) Both B & D.
Page Ref: 58
2. Which of the following is true about good theories?
A) They are seldom useful to practitioners.
B) They develop logical rationale for what is likely to be true.
C) They do not have to be empirically tested because they are
true.
D) They have the ability to explain known facts, but are usually
complex and require in-depth study.
E) A & D
Page Ref: 58 -59
3. Which of the following is NOT true regarding theories?
A) They provide guidelines and principles.
B) They are abstractions that are best left for researchers and not
applicable to practitioners.
C) They provide principles and predictions.
D) Successful people in business pay attention to them.
Page Ref: 58-59
4. The formula for performance (M X KSA X E) suggests
A) Only two of the three factors need to be favorable to obtain
high performance.
B) If motivation is high and KSAs are adequate, at least moderate
performance will be achieved.
C) If the environment is highly conducive to high performance,
D) None of the above is correct.
Page Ref: Figure 3-1, p. 60
5. What are the factors that interact to determine performance?
A) Knowledge, skills, and attitudes
B) Environment, skills, and strategy
C) Attitudes, strategy, and motivation
D) Motivation, environment, and skills
E) Motivation, KSAs, and environment
Page Ref: 60
6. Which of the following statements is true of motivation theories?
A) Needs are very similar for non-management employees.
B) Understanding needs helps you understand behavior.
C) Reinforcement theory is a commonly applied needs theory.
D) ERG is an acronym with the E representing the environment.
E) Maslow and Alderfer are two researchers commonly linked to
process theories.
Page Ref: 61-63
7. Which of the following is a needs theory?
A) Classical Conditioning
B) ERG
C) Reinforcement theory
D) Expectancy theory
E) A & C
Page Ref: 61
8. Which of these statements is true?
A) Maslow is known for his early work on Classical Conditioning
B) Alderfer developed a needs theory based on Pavlov’s early
work.
C) Existence needs are the highest order needs.
D) Relatedness reflects people’s need to be valued by others.
Page Ref: 61
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9. In motivating trainees to learn, which of the following needs –
existence, relatedness, or growth – should be the focus?
A) Existence
B) Relatedness
C) Growth
D) Both B & C
E) All of the above
Page Ref: 62
10. Understanding needs theory is important in the training process
because
A) Needs theory can help determine what kind of training design
will be more effective.
B) Needs theory can provide insight into the attitudes of trainees.
C) Needs theory can help identify trainees’ self efficacy.
D) All of the above.
Page Ref: 62
11. Classical conditioning
A) Is an automatic response requiring no learning.
B) Was discovered by Skinner.
C) Is a learned response to a stimulus.
D) Once learned cannot be unlearned.
E) C & D.
12. Who laid the foundation for reinforcement theory?
A) Maslow
B) Skinner
C) Bandura
D) Freud
E) Thorndike
Page Ref: 64
13. Stimulus leads to response which leads to consequence, best illustrates
which theory?
A) Punishment
B) Consequence
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C) Reinforcement
D) Needs
E) Classical Conditioning
Page Ref: Figure 3-2, p. 64
14. Which of the following depicts negative reinforcement?
A) After you do something, you are yelled at.
B) After you do something, you receive a reward.
C) After you do something, you receive no reward.
D) None of the above depicts negative reinforcement.
Page Ref: 65
15. Negative reinforcement
A) Reduces the likelihood of a behavior.
B) Increases the likelihood of a behavior.
C) Requires removal of something unpleasant.
D) Both A & C.
E) Both B & C.
Page Ref: 65
16. Which of the following statements is true regarding punishment?
A) It does not usually reduce the future likelihood of a behavior.
B) It is a very effective form of motivation.
C) It has the same results as negative reinforcement.
D) It is an undesirable training tool.
E) Randomly administering punishment keeps trainees on their
toes.
Page Ref: 65
17. Which of the following is a “process” theory of motivation?
A) ERG theory
B) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
C) Reinforcement theory
D) Both A & B
Page Ref: 65-66
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18. Who is responsible for development of expectancy theory?
A) Maslow
B) Skinner
C) Vroom
D) Freud
E) Bandura
Page Ref: 67
19. Which of the following statements about expectancy theory is true?
A) Expectancy 2 is related to self-efficacy.
B) Valence is the measure used for expectancy 1.
C) Expectancy 1 is 1.0 when related to a decision making (go vs.
no go) process.
D) The valence of outcomes is the same for everyone.
E) Expectancy 1 is directly related to valence of outcomes.
Page Ref: 67-68
20. Which of the following statements is true regarding expectancy
theory?
A) Expectancy 2 is the likelihood you will receive certain
outcomes if you reach acceptable performance.
B) The values given for outcomes are represented by a value
called expectancy 2.
C) Expectancy 1 is represented on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1
being the minimum.
D) Expectancy 2 is fixed in a person’s mind and is extremely
difficult to change.
Page Ref: 67-68
21. The _____ the self-efficacy, the _____ the performance.
A) Higher; worse
B) Higher; better
C) Lower; worse
D) Lower; better
E) All of the above are possible
Page Ref: 69
22. Which of the following statements regarding self-efficacy is true?
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A) Physical and emotional state is never a factor when estimating
an employee’s self-efficacy.
B) Those with high self-efficacy are also likely to be
self-actualized.
C) Higher self-efficacy has little impact on actual performance.
D) Feelings about one’s competency are reflected in the concept
of self-efficacy.
E) Behavioral models are not able to influence an employee’s
self-efficacy.
Page Ref: 69-70
23. Which of the following statements best explains the relationship
between training and self-efficacy?
A) The two concepts are not related.
B) Training can act to improve low self-efficacy only when
employees have the required KSAs.
C) It is useful to assess trainee self-efficacy prior to training only.
D) Self-efficacy beliefs are a good predictor of learning in the
training environment.
Page Ref: 70
24. Which of the following statements about learning is true?
A) It is not closely tied to memory.
B) It is always observable.
C) It must be retained to be useful.
D) It is always measurable by testing.
Page Ref: 70
25. Which of the following is true about studying motivation from a
behaviorist approach?
A) It is most reflected in how the behaviorist approach describes
the brain’s function in learning.
B) It suggests that learning is not controlled by the environment.
C) It suggests that trainers control learning by controlling the
stimuli and consequences that the learner experiences.
D) Bandura is the best-known contemporary behaviorist.
Page Ref: 70-72
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