Educational Psychology Final Study Guide

Imagine that you have just accepted your first teaching position. The principal tells you that the school consistently follows the practice of inclusion. With this in mind, you should expect that:

Some of your students may have physical or mental disabilities.

Which one of the following alternatives best describes how classroom practices are related to students’ characteristics and behaviors?

Students’ characteristics and behaviors should influence classroom practices, but classroom practices also influence students’ characteristics and behaviors.

Which one of the following children is most clearly a student with special needs?

Karen’s eyesight is so poor that she cannot read even with glasses, and so her teacher provides Braille versions of textbooks and homework assignments.

Which one of the following alternatives best illustrates learner-centered instruction in geometry?

Ms. Robb finds out how much her first graders already know about geometric shapes (squares, triangles, etc.) and plans her lesson on shapes accordingly.

With research findings described in the textbook in mind, identify the only true statement among the statements below.

Students who are a little anxious about their classroom performance often learn more than students who are completely relaxed.

A physical education teacher is showing her students how to dribble a basketball past an opponent. Which one of the following boys is most clearly engaging in elaboration during the demonstration?

Dominic thinks to himself, "Aha, I see what she’s doing. She’s trying to move the ball as unpredictably as possible."

After making an important point during a classroom lecture, a teacher stops and asks, "Does that make sense? Does everyone understand?" The students all nod their heads to indicate that they do understand. Which one of the following should the teacher conclude?

The students may or may not understand because they can’t always evaluate their own understandings very accurately.

Which one of the following best illustrates elaboration as psychologists typically use the term?

A student draws inferences from what he reads.

When students in the classroom tutor each other in academic subject matter, who benefits from the experience?

Both the tutor and the student receiving help benefit.

Imagine that you have to learn a new fact. If you want to learn it well, what would be your best course of action?

Embellish on it in some way.

Why do students in teacher education courses sometimes reject research findings?

Research results may conflict with their personal beliefs and experiences.

Which one of the following statements illustrates APA style?

Children from low-income families are often quite clever at improvising with everyday objects (Torrance, 1995).

Which one of the following best describes a theory?

An integration of concepts and principles that can potentially explain a particular phenomenon

Which one of the following alternatives best describes a descriptive study?

It yields information about the prevalence or frequencies of certain characteristics or events.

Which one of the following alternatives best describes a correlational study?

It indicates whether one characteristic tends to be found in association with one or more other characteristics.

Which one of the following alternatives best describes an experimental study?

It involves manipulating one variable to determine its possible effects on another variable.

Which one of the following alternatives best describes learner-centered instruction?

Instruction that is tailored to individual students’ characteristics and needs

Which one of the following statements is consistent with research findings described in the textbook?

Students often study differently for different kinds of classroom assessments

In general, experimental studies have which one of the following advantages over descriptive and correlational studies?

Only experimental studies allow us to identify the specific factors influencing behavior.

Judging from the textbook’s discussion of educational research, which one of the following would be the best course of action for teachers to take?

Teachers can use findings from educational research to guide their classroom decision making.

Deadlines in this course:

indicate the times after which required work is delinquent

Mr. Jacobs wants to find out whether a new program for teaching physical education promotes students’ physical development. So he gives his students a number of tests before they begin the program (pretests) and the same tests again after they have been in the program for eight months (posttests). He finds that the students’ posttest scores are higher than their pretest scores and so concludes that the program is effective. What is definitely wrong with Mr. Jacobs’ conclusion?

There are other possible explanations for his results.

If you have questions, you should:

A. Study the ideas further by re-reading B. Discuss ideas with other students in the course C. Email the instructor Correct Answer: D. Any of the above (A, B, or C) as needed

Students with special needs are students who:

Are different enough from their peers that specially adapted instruction or materials are necessary to promote their success at school

Which one of the following conclusions could be drawn from a descriptive study?

Approximately 80% of the students at Southside High School are planning to go to college.

Experimental research requires which one of the following?

Manipulating an aspect of the environment

The tests at the end of each chapter (the chapter quizzes) can be considered "high stakes" because:

A. They can only be taken once B. The grade received is the one that counts in the course final grade C. They can stimulate improved study through accountability Correct D. All of the above

A researcher is interested in the effect of teacher-student ratios. She finds 10 fifth-grade classrooms with 30-40 students per class and 10 others with 15-25 students per class. She discovers that there is a negative correlation between class size and student achievement. Which one of the following conclusions can we draw from this study?

Class size can help us predict school achievement.

Which one of the following conclusions can be drawn only from an experimental study?

Drugs administered during childbirth affect a child’s early development

Which one of the following statements is consistent with research findings described in the textbook?

Students who see a classmate rewarded for doing something may engage in the same behavior themselves.

Professor Moriarty conducts an experiment to test whether or not the Holmes Approach to Studying Psychology (HASP) is superior to the Watson Approach to Studying Psychology (WASP). He convinces Dr. Ormrod to use HASP in her 9:00 class and WASP in her 10:00 class. Students exposed to the HASP method do better on the final exam than students exposed to the WASP method. Prof. Moriarty concludes that HASP is better than WASP. What is definitely wrong with Moriarty’s experiment?

There are several possible explanations for his results.

A research study finds that, on average, students who weigh more do better in school. Which one of the following is an appropriate deduction from this information?

There is a correlation between weight and classroom performance.

The textbook offers several suggestions for studying a textbook effectively. Which one of the following is not necessarily recommended?

Take detailed notes on the book’s content.

Which one of the following is an example of elaboration?

Melissa makes up stories to help her remember the various species she studies in biology.

In psychology, a theory can best be characterized as:

An explanation of how and why learning or development occurs

The final summative evaluation (i.e., the final exam) is composed of:

50 questions drawn from throughout the text

This course it designed to ensure that:

You can choose the best study strategies for you

Mr. Jones, a physical education teacher, notices that some of his students are better basketball players than others. He wonders if having a basketball net at home fosters the development of basketball skills. He gives his students a short survey that asks them if they have a basketball net at home. Sure enough, Mr. Jones finds that the better basketball players are more likely to have a net at home. He concludes that having a basketball net at home facilitates the development of basketball skills. Is his conclusion appropriate?

No, because he didn’t conduct an experimental study

The majority of students with physical and health impairments attend general education classrooms for part or all of the school day (U.S. Dept. of Education, 1996). Which sentence within the paragraph most clearly shows APA style?

The last sentence

Why are you provided learning options (learning tools)?

To provide individual choice about how to learn

A study that tells us whether two variables are associated, but does not tell us if one variable causes or influences the other, is:

A correlational study

Which one of the following is the best example of learning as the textbook defines it?

Stanford remembers certain facts in his history class long enough to do well on a quiz the following week, but he has trouble remembering them a month later.

Which one of the following alternatives best illustrates the principle that children are often actively involved in their own learning?

When Kim watches a video about rainforests, she thinks about the many ways in which rainforests benefit the planet as a whole.

Different students sometimes interpret what they hear in class in very different ways. Which one of the following best explains this fact?

Students draw on their own personal knowledge and experiences to make sense of something new.

If you were interested in what your students do "in their heads" as they study classroom material, which one of the following theoretical perspectives of learning would be most helpful to you?

Information processing theory

Which one of the following alternatives best describes encoding in learning and memory?
Correct

Changing the form of incoming information in order to remember it better

Sociocultural theory can best be described as a perspective of learning that:

Addresses the many social contexts in which children grow up

Which one of the following is the best example of construction in learning?

Jason thinks that many houses in France are made of plaster of Paris.

Why is it important that students be selective in what they study?

Because the human memory system isn’t equipped to handle all the information people receive

Some serious mental illnesses appear to involve abnormalities in certain neurotransmitters. This means that there are abnormalities in:

Chemical substances that enable neurons to intercommunicate

A teacher wants to learn new strategies for teaching social studies. Which one of the following bodies of research is probably going to be least helpful?

Research on what various parts of the brain do

As an assignment in his geometry class, Vladimir is trying to calculate the area of a half-circle. Which one of the following alternatives best describes how his brain is involved in this activity?

Many parts of his brain are actively collaborating as he works.

Which one of the following alternatives best describes how the brain is involved in learning?

New synapses are formed and existing synapses are either strengthened or weakened.

On Thursday night, Jennifer studies for a test she will take on Friday morning. She remembers the material quite accurately on Friday and gets an A on the test. However, when she takes a review test two weeks later, she can no longer remember the material. How far in Jennifer’s memory does the material get?

It reaches her long-term memory.

In which situation is a student most clearly elaborating on new information?

Martin thinks, "I see that many California cities have Spanish names. So, early settlers in California were probably Spanish."

The textbook distinguishes between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Which one of the following alternatives best describes declarative knowledge?

Knowledge of facts related to particular objects and events.

Mr. Wang wants his physical education students to learn how to dribble a basketball so well that they can perform the skill almost without thinking. In other words, he wants them to learn the task to a level of automaticity. Which one of the following strategies will best help his students achieve that goal?

Give students a lot of practice dribbling.

The VT Honor Code:

Requires students in this course to take the quizzes and exams in this course without outside help

The practice of inclusion involves which one of the following?

Educating students with special needs in general education settings alongside their nondisabled peers

Which one of the following statements about educational research is true?

Experimental research allows us to draw cause-and-effect conclusions.

Students with special needs are students who:

Are different enough from their peers that specially adapted instruction or materials are necessary to promote their success at school

Why are you provided learning options (learning tools)?

To provide individual choice about how to learn

At the beginning of the term, you should:

B, C, & D below B. Plan your study carefully to ensure mastery C. Plan to submit assignments early in order to accommodate unforeseen events D. Schedule all due dates

The textbook recommends a number of strategies for increasing students’ attention in the classroom. Which one of the following, while possibly beneficial for other reasons, is not necessarily recommended as a strategy for increasing attention?

Follow a predictable routine every day.

Three of the following statements are consistent with general principles of learning presented in the textbook. Which one is not consistent with these principles?

People learn in ways that are very similar to how other species learn.

Which one of the following best describes the process of conceptual change as cognitive psychologists use the term?

Revising one’s beliefs after receiving information that contradicts those beliefs

Which one of the following statements best describes the three-component model of memory presented in the textbook?

D. All information that enters long-term memory must first pass through the sensory register and working memory.

The textbook suggests that students often engage in rote learning rather than meaningful learning of school subject matter because:

D. Classroom teaching and testing practices often encourage it.

Ms. Goodsell is thinking about how she might help the students in her introductory French class learn to pronounce the word bonjour correctly. Which one of her thoughts below is most consistent with a social learning perspective of learning?

D. "Maybe I should show them how I form my mouth and lips as I pronounce the word and then encourage them to imitate me."

Three of the following teachers are using strategies that should help students learn information effectively. Which one is not necessarily promoting effective cognitive processing?

B. Ms. Bertinelli has students repeat definitions of new vocabulary words out loud.

Psychologists often emphasize the importance of attention in the learning process. From the perspective of the three-component model of memory, why is attention so important?

D. It moves information from the sensory register into working memory.

Which one of the following statements best characterizes the duration of the sensory register?

C. Visual information lasts less than a second, with auditory information lasting a bit longer.

When teachers increase their wait time from one second to three seconds, other teacher behaviors are likely to change as well. Which one of the following is not a typical outcome of increasing wait time?

A. Teachers often lose the momentum of classroom activities.

Which one of the following statements best characterizes working memory (sometimes known as short-term memory)?

C. It actively processes a small amount of information, typically holding it for less than a minute.

Considering developmental trends in long-term memory storage processes, choose the statement that best characterizes how high school students are apt to approach school learning tasks.

C. Some students intentionally organize and elaborate on class material; others rely largely on rehearsal.

Jenny is taking a quiz that asks for the chemical symbols of 20 elements. She remembers 19 of them but cannot remember the symbol for mercury. As she walks home from school, she suddenly remembers that the symbol for mercury is Hg. Jenny’s memory problem during the quiz can best be explained in terms of:

D. Failure to retrieve

Four boys read this line from a story: "The two men entered the restaurant and ordered hamburgers." Which one of the boys is clearly using a script while reading the story?

A. Alex assumes that the men probably looked at a menu before ordering.

Wendy 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 psychologists’ concept of schema, how could we explain Wendy’s error?

D. Wendy’s schema of how a typical beach looks includes shells.

Which one of the following teaching strategies best illustrates many educational psychologists’ belief that, in some situations, less is more?

C. Teach fewer topics, but teach each one more thoroughly.

Which one of the following best describes a concept?

C. A category of similar objects or events

To remember the four states that come together at a single point (Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah), Marcia remembers "CANU" (pronounced like "canoe"). Marcia’s technique illustrates the use of:

B. A superimposed meaningful structure

Susan hears her teacher say, "Seven times nine is sixty-three," and immediately repeats this math fact to herself three times. Five minutes later, Susan cannot respond correctly when her teacher asks, "What is seven times nine?" Based on this information, how far in Susan’s memory system did the math fact probably get?

B. It reached working memory.

Mr. Loosigian is worried about Jerri, a girl who is struggling in his seventh-grade class. He thinks about several different reasons why she might be having so much difficulty with her schoolwork. Which one of the reasons he considers is consistent with a behaviorist perspective of learning?

B. "Maybe I don’t praise her enough when she does something well."

The following situations all involve a soccer ball and a student named Lorena. In which one is the ball most clearly an antecedent stimulus affecting Lorena’s behavior?

C. When Lorena and some of her friends find a soccer ball on the playground during recess, they immediately form teams and begin a soccer game.

When talking about operant conditioning, why do psychologists generally prefer to use the word reinforcer rather than reward?

B. Because the word reward implies that most or all people would find the consequence desirable.

Three of the following are examples of operant conditioning. Which one is not?

C. When Alice’s teacher praises her in class for her fine oral report, Alice is embarrassed and vows never to act so smart in front of her friends again.

Which one of the following is the best example of positive reinforcement in operant conditioning?

C. When Tabitha’s teacher scolds her for using foul language in class, Tabitha’s language gets worse rather than better.

Which one of the following is an example of negative reinforcement?

B. Ophelia completes her English paper two days early so she won’t have it hanging over her head anymore.

Which one of the following is an example of vicarious reinforcement

C. Chad sees Luke cheat on a test and then later get an A on that test, whereas Chad himself receives only a C. Chad starts cheating on exams after that.

Which one of the following is a good example of a secondary reinforcer?

B. A good grade on a difficult exam

At home, Brian has read many books about fish and other creatures that live in the ocean. One day during a unit on sea life, his fourth-grade teacher shows the class a picture of a manatee and asks if anyone knows another common name for this animal. Brian correctly shouts out, "Sea cow!" Brian learned this fact several years ago, but he has never demonstrated his knowledge of it until now. Which one of the following alternatives best explains Brian’s delay in showing what he knows?

D. Learners form expectations about which behaviors will lead to reinforcement and which will not.

Isaac really wants to get an A on Friday’s history test. His friends want him to go to the movies Thursday night, but he declines and instead stays home to study for the test. Which one of the following is definitely true about Isaac?

C. He is able to delay gratification.

Which one of the following is an intrinsic reinforcer?

D. Feeling good about donating to a worthy charity

Erin is working extremely hard in her science class in the hopes that she will get an A from Mr. Richards—someone who has a reputation for being a tough grader. Which one of the following concepts best describes the A grade in this situation?

B. Removal punishment

Which one of the following might be a symbolic model for a high school student?

B. George Washington

Janice sees Mark drinking a soft drink in Ms. Murray’s class. "Geez, Mark," she whispers to him after class, "bringing drinks to class is against school rules. Aren’t you afraid you’ll get caught?" Mark replies that he’s been bringing drinks to class all year and Ms. Murray has never told him to stop; usually she doesn’t even notice what he’s doing. Janice begins bringing her own drink to class after that. Which one of the following principles of learning does this situation best illustrate?

B. The nonoccurrence of expected punishment is a form of reinforcement.

Imagine that you are a high school teacher. You notice that some of the girls in your tenth-grade classes have all begun wearing a distinctive new style of pants you haven’t seen before. If you consider the characteristics that effective models typically have, you would be most likely to guess that the girls have modeled their new fashion choices after the attire of which one of the following individuals

A. A hip and popular young movie star

Which one of the following alternatives is the best example of situated learning?

A. She apparently associates inertia only with a particular context—her physics class—and doesn’t think of it elsewhere.

Dr. Kenney conducts a study in which she gives some students (chosen randomly) logically organized learning material; she gives other students the same material presented in a haphazard, unpredictable sequence. She finds that students with the organized material remember more. This study can best be described as:

C. An experimental study

Which one of the following statements best describes how learners often acquire procedural knowledge?

A. Learners first learn it as declarative knowledge; with time and practice, it gradually becomes procedural knowledge.

The textbook describes a study by Bartlett in which college students in England read a Native American ghost story entitled "The War of the Ghosts." From Bartlett’s results, we can conclude that students who read a story written from the perspective of a culture different from their own are likely to:

C. Interpret the story in a way that’s more consistent with their own culture

Each of the teachers below has students with misconceptions about the material they are studying. Three of the teachers are using strategies that should help their students correct these misconceptions. Which teacher is not using an effective strategy for changing misconceptions?

C. Ms. Caro reminds her students that she will be testing them on the material they are studying.

To prepare for his test on Tuesday morning, Harry studied on Monday night. He remembered the information long enough to do well on the test on Tuesday but could not remember it for a surprise quiz a week later. Based on this information, how far in Harry’s memory system did the information get?

C. It reached long-term memory.

Sarah needs to know her division facts for a quiz tomorrow. She wants to do as well as she possibly can on the quiz. Taking what psychologists have learned about automaticity into account, which one of the following would be the best advice to give Sarah?

D. "Study the facts until you know them all perfectly, and then continue to practice them periodically after that."

When beginning a unit on the digestive system with his fourth graders, Mr. Macum asks his students, "What happens when you chew your food? Your teeth are working hard, to be sure. But what else does your mouth do when it has food in it?" Mr. Macum is using a strategy known as:

A. Prior knowledge activation

Three of the following teachers are engaging in instructional practices consistent with principles of effective modeling. Which one is not?

C. Mr. Carlson tells his class he smokes cigarettes, although he wishes he’d never started.

Linda wears bell-bottom pants to school, and her classmates tease her about them. As soon as she gets home, Linda throws the pants in the trash. Linda’s being teased is an example of:

A. Presentation punishment

Which one of the following statements best illustrates the process of cueing acceptable behaviors?

C. "Students who are sitting quietly will be the first ones to be dismissed."

Only one of the following could be a primary reinforcer. Which one?

C. A glass of water

Eighth-grade teacher Genevieve Martin invites a local African American businessman to talk with her students about how he built up his business from a part-time hobby into a successful company with more than 50 employees. Ms. Martin also has her students watch video clips about Steven Hawking, a renowned but severely disabled physicist. And she has them read columns written by Fareed Zakaria, an Arab American contributor to Newsweek magazine. In doing these things, Ms. Martin is definitely:

D. Exposing students to a variety of role models

Operant conditioning theorists use the term reinforcement rather than "reward" because:

A. The term "reward" implies a consequence that others would judge to be desirable.

Considering what we know about the kinds of models people are likely to imitate, we can guess that, on average, adolescent girls will be least likely to imitate:

A. Anita, a skillful auto mechanic

Three of the following depict situations in which a teacher is facilitating the retention condition that enables a child to learn from a model. Which one does not necessarily depict such a situation?

B. Mr. Byers suggests, "Let’s play some background music while I show you how to use the dipstick to measure your oil level."

Sharon knows that Kathy frequently completes her assignments long after they are due. She has noticed that their teacher willingly accepts Kathy’s late assignments because Kathy always has a creative excuse for turning them in late. Sharon begins to do the same thing—she turns in assignments past the due date and makes up excuses for why she is late. Sharon’s increase in excuse-making is due to:

B. Modeling and vicarious reinforcement

If you wanted to encourage kindergartners to delay gratification, you would be most likely to:

D. Occasionally remind them that they will get a bigger reward by waiting a couple of hours

Three of the following are typical benefits of group discussions in the classroom. Which one is not a typical benefit when learners discuss classroom material?

C. Class discussions promote more rapid learning of classroom subject matter.

As children develop, they acquire many cognitive tools of their culture. Which teacher is most clearly applying this idea?

B. Ms. Turiel shows students how to graph their research results so that they can more easily see trends in the data.

In psychologists’ conceptualization of reciprocal causation, which one of the following is a person factor?

A. Alma pays close attention to lectures in her science class.

Given what psychologists have learned about modeling, why might inner-city African American students learn more from an African American model who grew up in a ghetto than from a model of a different race or background?

B. Because the students will view the African American model’s behavior as being applicable to themselves

Good grades are reinforcing to some students but not to others. Someone explaining this fact from an operant conditioning perspective would say that good grades are most likely to be reinforcers to students who:

C. Have previously associated grades with other reinforcers

When we say that different cultural and ethnic groups have different worldviews, we mean that:

A. Their basic assumptions about how the world operates may be different.

Which one of the following is the best example of the use of an activity reinforcer?

C. Being allowed to play basketball at a friend’s house after you finish your homework

An incentive is likely to be an effective motivator for students only when:

C. Students believe it is within their reach.

Which one of the following statements best describes positive reinforcement?

A. Reinforcement consists of getting something a learner finds desirable.

Which one of the following is the most accurate statement about cultural differences among students?

D. Behaviors for two different cultural groups may differ on average, but variability within each group keeps us from predicting the behavior of specific individuals.

Which one of the following students is most clearly engaging in metacognition?

D. Karen occasionally pauses to make sure she understands what she’s reading in her textbook.

Which one of the following is the best example of a covert study strategy?

C. Thinking of new examples of a scientific concept

Which one of the following statements reflects an epistemological belief?

C. "If I can’t make sense of something right away, I’ll never make sense of it at all."

Margot needs to study for a geography test. After turning on her iPod so that she can listen to her favorite hip-hop songs as she studies, she spends almost three hours scanning her textbook and class notes, not just once but several times. The following morning, Margot takes the test, and the day after that she learns that she has failed it. "How can that be?!" she exclaims. "I studied so hard!" Which one of the following concepts best explains Margot’s astonishment about her low grade?

C. Illusion of knowing

Which one of the following is the best example of an overt study strategy?

D. Taking notes in class

A teacher says to her class, "Today we’re going to read a story about Neil Armstrong, the first human being to walk on the moon." Julie responds, "I’m going to listen closely so I can remember every single word of the story." Drawing on what researchers have learned about developmental trends in metacognition, how old is Julie most likely to be?

B. Seven years old

As he studies for a history test, Jamil makes a chart of various events and draws lines between related ones. He labels each line with a word or phrase that describes the relationship involved. Jamil’s strategy illustrates which one of the following?

C. Concept map

Which one of the following students is most likely to engage in meaningful learning in studying classroom material?

A. Earl conceptualizes the learning process as something that requires active interpretation and organization of material.

Which one of the following students is most clearly demonstrating self-regulation as psychologists define the term?

D. Dana is quite proud of herself when she can finally do a handstand on her own.

Which one of the following best illustrates self-monitoring in self-regulated learning?

B. Sybil occasionally quizzes herself as she studies her notes.

Which one of the following aspects of self-regulation would you be most likely to see in a fourth grader?

C. Feeling ashamed about a poor grade

Which one of the following best describes how help seeking enters into self-regulated learning and behavior?

D. Self-regulating learners seek assistance that will enable them to perform more independently in the future.

Which one of the following alternatives best describes the central executive of the memory system?

B. A component that oversees the flow and processing of information

Mary knows she doesn’t always approach her reading assignments as effectively as she could. So she writes the following points on an index card that she keeps on her desk: "1. Flip through the pages to see headings and subheadings. 2. Make up some questions that the chapter might answer. 3. Start to read, looking for the answers." Mary’s index card can best be described as providing:

C. Self-instructions

Which one of the following examples best illustrates co-regulated learning?

B. A middle school teacher asks students to take notes in class and gives them a form that can guide them as they do so.

Quincy is quite content with getting Bs and Cs in his courses. If we know that Quincy is a self-regulating learner, we could best explain his mediocre performance by saying that:

A. He has set his standards for classroom performance fairly low.