1) Which one of the following responses is most likely to be learned through classical
conditioning?
a.Feeling anxious around horses
b.Taking a walk on a nice day
c.Doing homework
d.Waving to a friend
2) Theorists conceptualize propositions as abstract entities but usually describe them in
terms of words. This sentence:
Susan gives her brother a big kiss.
reflects several propositions that are likely to be stored in long-term memory. Three of
the statements below reflect propositions contained within the sentence. Which
statement does not reflect a proposition contained within the sentence?
a.Susan has a brother.
b.Susan gives the brother a kiss.
c.Susan likes the brother.
d.The kiss is big.
3) From a Vygotskian perspective, scaffolding serves what purpose in instruction?
a.It gives children an idea of what they need to do to get good grades.
b.It keeps school tasks within childrens actual developmental levels.
c.It lets children learn by watching one another.
d.It supports children as they perform difficult tasks.
4) A triangle is a ________ of the concept square.
a.correlational feature
b.defining feature
c.positive instance
d.negative instance
5) Mnemonics probably facilitate memory in a number of ways. Which one of the
following is not a potential advantage of mnemonics?
a.They relate new information to what a person already knows.
b.They expand the capacity of working memory.
c.They help organize information.
d.They provide retrieval cues.
6) Which one of the following behaviors would suggest to you that a person has
encoded information at least partly as visual imagery?
a.Sasha can easily answer the question, How old are you?
b.Roger uses his hands to show the length of a fish he caught last week.
c.Marianne reads aloud a particularly descriptive paragraph from Moby Dick.
d.Jayden appears to be quite surprised to learn that a heavy metal object can float if its
hollow inside.
7) Lenesa sees a picture of a beach and then later tries to draw the picture from memory.
She draws shells on the beach even though the beach in the picture had no shells. Using
cognitive psychologists concept of schema, how could we explain Lenesas error?
a.Lenesa has a schema for shells but does not have one for beaches.
b.Lenesa has a schema for beaches but does not have one for shells.
c.Lenesas schema for a typical beach includes shells.
d.Lenesas schemas of beaches and shells are interfering with each other.
8) Three of the following statements are consistent with neo-Piagetian perspectives of
cognitive development. Which statement is not?
a.Formal instruction can have a significant impact on childrens cognitive development.
b.Incomplete brain maturation limits how much children at any particular age can do.
c.Through their everyday experiences, children learn some of the basic patterns in their
environment even without intentionally trying to do so.
d.Cognitive development is better characterized as a series of seven (rather than four)
general stages.
9) Which one of the following students clearly has a mastery goal rather than a
performance goal?
a.Alice is relieved to learn she passed her English composition course.
b.Boris wants the recognition that being a star football player will bring him.
c.Cal doesnt worry about making mistakes as long as he knows hes making progress.
d.Dinah stays away from science courses because shes never done very well in science.
10) Which one of the following is most likely to be useful in teaching children to solve
mathematical problems effectively?
a.Teaching tricks such as When you see altogether in a problem, you should add
b.Making sure that students know why procedures work as well as how to use them
c.Having students practice procedures in isolation before applying them to real-life
situations
d.Making sure that students can think abstractly before they begin to solve problems
11) Considering trends in metacognitive development, only one of the following
statements is accurate. Which one?
a.Learners of all ages generally know the things they know and the things they dont.
b.Elementary students have a better sense of what they do and dont know than high
school students do.
c.Students tend to know a great many things that they dont realize they know.
d.Students across the K-12 grade span often think they know things that they really dont
know.
12) Which one of the following is an example of reinforcing an incompatible behavior
as a way of eliminating an undesirable behavior?
a.Samantha is very shy and socially withdrawn. Her teacher reinforces her with a smile
whenever she interacts with her classmates.
b.Johnnys wisecracks have become so annoying that his teacher keeps him in from
recess whenever he speaks inappropriately.
c.Mary has learned to reinforce herself whenever she gets all her spelling words correct.
d.Jerry must stay after school on days when he arrives late.
13) A ski instructor is teaching a class of beginning skiers how to do a snowplow turn.
She first teaches her students to stand with the fronts of their skis together and the backs
of their skis far apart. She then has her students bend their knees slightly and lean
forward in this snowplow position. After the students can do these two things
successfully, the instructor has them add more behaviors to the sequence: gliding across
the side of a gentle slope in a snowplow, putting their body weight on the downhill ski,
gradually turning downhill, and so on. The instructor praises her students each time
they successfully add a new movement to the sequence. In behaviorist terminology, the
procedure that the ski instructor is using can best be described as:
a.the Premack principle
b.chaining
c.a differential schedule of reinforcement
d.higher-level conditioning
14) Three of the following strategies should promote the acquisition of useful personal
theories about the physical world. Which one is least likely to do so?
a.Encourage learners to form a strong emotional attachment to their beliefs.
b.Show three-dimensional models that illustrate the solar system, the structure of DNA,
and so on.
c.Teach theories that help learners make accurate predictions, even if those theories
dont capture the full complexity of phenomena.
d.Have learners exchange different hypotheses and perspectives about a phenomenon
they have observed.
15) Imagine that you are a third-grade teacher. If you were to make predictions based
on Piagets stages of cognitive development, you would expect most or all of your
students to exhibit _______ thinking.
a.sensorimotor
b.preoperational
c.formal operations
d.concrete operations
16) Olivia understands why 3/5 and 9/15 are equivalent fractions. Based on this
information, Olivia is probably in Piagets _______ stage of development.
a.formal operations
b.preoperational
c.concrete operations
d.sensorimotor
17) Weston is working on a science project and wants to make his papier-mch volcano
erupt. He remembers that when his mother combined vinegar and baking soda while
following a recipe, the batter foamed up as she added the vinegar. So he tries mixing
vinegar and baking soda in his volcano, and the mixture bubbles. Weston is showing:
a.General transfer
b.Intuitive transfer
c.Negative transfer
d.Specific transfer
18) Five-year-old Lucy encounters the word platypus in one of her storybooks and asks
her father what the word means. When her father tells her that a platypus is a kind of
animal, Lucy has an easier time learning what a platypus is than she might have
otherwise. A cognitive psychologist would be most likely to explain this by saying that:
a.Lucy is now able to form a script regarding the nature of a platypus.
b.Lucys personal theory about the nature of living things helps her narrow down the
possible defining features of the concept platypus.
c.The fathers statement makes it unnecessary for Lucy to form a prototype of the
concept platypus.
d.The fathers statement enables Lucy to develop a variety of exemplars that illustrate
the concept platypus.
19) Which one of the following best illustrates the working aspect of working memory?
a.Efficiently using a pair of scissors
b.Confusing two peoples names
c.Alphabetizing five names as you hold them in memory
d.Unconsciously adjusting your grip on a tennis racket in anticipation of executing a
backhand swing