1) Matthews mother teaches him to measure butter for cooking by placing the butter in
a measuring cup partially filled with water and seeing how high the water rises. In his
science lab a few days later, Matthew realizes he can use the same procedure to
measure the volume of an irregularly shaped object. Which one of the following best
describes Matthews approach to problem solving?
a.working backward
b.visual imagery
c.drawing an analogy
d.brainstorming
2) Which one of the teachers below is using a strategy consistent with the concept of
hot cognition?
a.Ms. Kozloff shows her students a colorful video that depicts the lives of animals that
live in the African Serengeti ecosystem.
b.Mr. Waterman encourages his students to try to find good qualities in each of their
classmates.
c.Ms. Schuler has her students engage in fifteen minutes of vigorous exercise before
they sit down to tackle some difficult math problems.
d.Mr. Ramirez portrays the Holocaust so vividly that her students become quite angry
about the atrocities the Nazis committed.
3) Missy is given this problem:
Mt. Washington is lower than Mt. Jefferson.
Mt. Washington is higher than Mt. Adams.
Which mountain is highest?
Missy reads the fourth word incorrectlyshe thinks the word is higher rather than
lowerand consequently answers the problem incorrectly. From an information
processing perspective, Missys difficulty is due to:
a.Her limited working memory capacity
b.Functional fixedness
c.The way she encodes information
d.The fact that she is retrieving information that hasnt been stored meaningfully
4) Research indicates that when appropriate precautions are taken, the most effective
method of reducing inappropriate behavior typically is:
a.extinction
b.punishment
c.reinforcement of incompatible behaviors
d.an intermittent schedule of reinforcement
5) Which one of the following best illustrates Piagets concept of accommodation?
a.After Amanda solves a set of 10 addition problems carelessly and incorrectly, she is
given 10 more problems to solve.
b.Betsy writes down her definition of a mollusksomething she learned word for word
from her textbook.
c.Carol copies what her teacher writes on the blackboard.
d.Donna revises her understanding of what clouds are like when she studies them in
science.
6) Mr. Lopez, a third-grade teacher, wants to enhance his students intrinsic motivation
to learn classroom subject matter. Three of the following strategies should accomplish
this goal. Which one is not likely to enhance students intrinsic motivation to learn?
a.Mr. Lopez explains that using quiet, indoor voices during a cooperative learning
activity can help students accomplish their goals for the activity.
b.Mr. Lopez consistently shows students that he cares about their well-being and wants
them to do well in his class.
c.Mr. Lopez promises his students that they can have free time at the end of the day if
they do well on their spelling tests.
d.Mr. Lopez gives students the scaffolding they need in order to be successful at
challenging tasks.
7) Choose the statement below that most accurately reflects recent research findings
concerning Piagets theory of cognitive development.
a.The egocentrism associated with the preoperational stage continues to be common
even in the upper elementary grades.
b.Concrete operational thinking abilities, such as conservation and class inclusion,
develop later than Piaget believed.
c.The order in which various logical thinking capabilities emerge is consistent with the
sequence that Piaget proposed.
d.Formal operational thinking abilities, such as the ability to think and reason about
abstract and hypothetical ideas, begin to emerge in the preschool years.
8) When Scott was first learning how to write, he wrote quickly and sloppily, without
regard for how his papers looked. But his teachers praised him regularly for writing
carefully and legibly, and eventually he began to pride himself on his neat and careful
handwriting. This transition can best be described as:
a.Acquiring an external locus of control
b.Developing internalized motivation
c.Developing situational interest
d.Developing extrinsic motivation
9) Which one of the following statements best characterizes how reinforcement of
incompatible behavior can help reduce peoples inappropriate behaviors?
a.When we reinforce different people for different behaviors, they begin to discover
which behaviors are appropriate and which are not.
b.Negative reinforcement of an incompatible behavior can ultimately reduce the
frequency of that behavior.
c.An undesirable behavior will decrease when a person is reinforced for behaving in an
opposite manner.
d.We can reduce serious behavior problems by allowing people to engage in less serious
misbehaviors.
10) Which one of the following is the best example of the Premack principle in action?
a.Getting a new outfit you think is cool
b.Being allowed to play basketball at a friends house after you finish your homework.
c.Being told that you did a good job.
d.Feeling good about your own generosity toward a less fortunate classmate.