Psychology final
Nathan has been playing golf with his parents for many years. When he goes out for the school baseball team, he has trouble hitting the ball because he keeps confusing the swing of the bat with how he swings a golf club. Nathan's difficulty reflects:
negative transfer
Which one of the following alternatives most clearly illustrates general transfer rather than specific transfer?
Brian has learned study skills in his sociology class that he also finds useful in his nutrition class.
Three of the following assumptions underlie cognitive psychology's perspective of learning. Which one does not?
People learn in ways that are very similar to how other species learn.
vicarious reinforcement
Phenomenon in which a response increases in frequency when another person is observed being reinforced for that response.
Which one of the following best illustrates automaticity?
Playing a musical piece on the piano easily and effortlessly
Social cognitive theorists propose that three of the following are essential for students to learn successfully from models. Which one is not essential?
Reinforcement for good performance
Which one of the following behaviors meets both of the essential criteria for creativity?
Rick finds a new use for old greeting cards: cutting them into circles and coating them with resin so that people can use them as coasters for soft drinks.
Vygotsky
Russian psychologist who emphasized the cultural basis of cognitive development
Maria is what social cognitive theorists would describe as a self-regulating person when it comes to her moral behavior. Given this information, which one of the following descriptions best describes Maria's moral behavior?
She has an internal set of standards regarding right and wrong behavior, and she feels guilty when she violates those standards.
Five-year-old Becky is playing with blocks, stacking them one on top of another until her towers eventually tumble, and then stacking them again. Which one of the following best reflects Piaget's view of how Becky is probably learning in this situation?
She is actively thinking about and interpreting the results of her actions.
conceptual change
Significant revision of one's existing beliefs about a topic, enabling new and discrepant information to be better understood and explained.
The term negative reinforcement can best be described as a situation in which:
Something the learner doesn't want is taken away after a response
Which one of the following descriptions best reflects how educators typically define students at risk?
Students unlikely to acquire the basic academic skills necessary for success in the adult world
Which one of the following statements best characterizes cognitive psychology's approach to learning?
Students' learning is a function of what they do, mentally, with the information they receive.
Jean piaget
Swiss biologist; last century's most influential observer of children
Socialization
That is, members of a cultural group work hard to help growing children adopt the behaviors and beliefs that the group holds dear.
Which one of the following scenarios best reflects the basic idea of social constructivism?
Two students discuss possible interpretations of the proverb, "We only know the worth of water when the well is dry."
From the perspective of contemporary cognitive psychology, a schema can best be described as:
an organized set of facts about a particular object or phenomenon.
punishment
any event or object that, when following a response, makes that response less likely to happen again
Louis receives a new soccer ball and begins to dribble it in the same way he dribbles his basketball. His dribbling of the new ball reflects Piaget's concept of:
assimilation
As his teacher reads a story, Wesley pictures the main characters the way he thinks they must look. By forming visual images based on the verbal descriptions his teacher reads, Wesley is ________ those descriptions.
encoding
Which one of the following instructional objectives most clearly involves a higher-level cognitive process?
"Students will use the laws of momentum and inertia to explain how objects move."
Metacognition
"Thinking about thinking" or the ability to evaluate a cognitive task to determine how best to accomplish it, and then to monitor and adjust one's performance on that task
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.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
A child's zone of proximal development includes learning and problem-solving abilities that are just beginning to emerge and develop.
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 a symbolic model?
A detective on a television show
time out
A disciplinary technique in which a child is separated from other people for a specified time. In a mild form, it might involve asking students to put their heads down on their desks or to sit away from other students, where they must quietly watch an enjoyable activity in which classmates are participating. For more significant infractions, it might involve placing a student for a short time in a separate place that's dull and boring—perhaps a remote corner of the classroom or playground.4
Characteristics of at risk students
A history of academic failure, emotional and behavioral problems, lack of psychological attachment at school and increasing disengagement at school
Which one of the following best describes Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development?
A series of stages, each of which has a unique developmental task to be addressed
Which one of the following examples illustrates vicarious reinforcement?
Alice notices that her friend Ellen gets extra attention from the teacher when she acts helpless. Alice begins to act helpless as well.
Which one of the following statements best describes the three-component model of memory presented in the textbook?
All information that enters long-term memory must first pass through the sensory register and working memory.
Authentic activity
An approach to instruction similar to one students might encounter in the outside world. Such activities can have several benefits. For one thing, by working in naturalistic contexts, using the physical and social resources that such contexts offer (e.g., tools, other people), students should be able to accomplish more than they would accom- plish in relatively artificial and simplistic classroom tasks
self-efficacy
An individual's belief that he or she is capable of performing a task. For example, we hope you have high self-efficacy for learning educational psychology, believing that with careful thought about what you read, you'll be able to understand and apply its key principles. You may or may not believe that with instruction and practice, you could eventually execute a passable swan dive. You're probably quite skeptical that you could ever walk barefoot over hot coals, so we guess you have low self-efficacy regarding this endeavor. Obviously, then, self-efficacy plays a key role in learners' outcome expectations (i.e., predictions about the consequences that a particular behavior is likely to yield) for various courses of action.
Which one of the following best illustrates self-efficacy rather than self-concept or self-esteem?
Anne is pretty sure she can win a spot on the school's dance squad if she practices her routine every day until the tryouts.
Which one of the following students is displaying intrinsic motivation?
Annette loves to play the viola and so practices for at least an hour every day.
Learner-directed instruction
Approach to instruction in which students have considerable say in the issues they address and how to address them.
Teacher-directed instruction
Approach to instruction in which the teacher is largely in control of the content and course of the lesson.
Three of the following students show warning signs of being at risk. Which student is least likely to be at risk?
Barbara is so busy with student government, cheerleading, and varsity sports that her grades have gone from As to Cs and Ds.
Erickson psychosocial development
Based first 5 stages on Freud's psychosexual stages - Described the crisis to be resolved for each stage, each with a positive/negative, healthy/unhealthy outcome. - Success in a given stage is considered when a person attains a level of functioning at the positive end of the scale.
From the perspective of social cognitive theory, 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?
Because the students will view the African American model's behavior as being applicable to their own situation
imaginary audience
Because they believe themselves to be the center of attention, young teenagers (especially girls) are often preoccupied with their physical appearance and can be quite self-critical. To some degree, this heightened concern about what other people might think of them appears to be linked to maturational changes in certain areas of the brain, including areas that underlie self-focused emotions such as shame and embarrassment
Which one of the following examples illustrates how the imaginary audience can be a factor in the adolescent's developing self-concept?
Bernita feels as if everyone must be looking at her when she walks down the hall with her friends.
Which one of the following students is definitely working in his or her zone of proximal development?
Berta is beginning to learn basic woodworking techniques. She has trouble hammering a nail straight into a piece of wood unless her teacher stands beside her, helping her and reminding her of what to do.
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 is a higher-level question?
Can you use what we learned about snakes and what we know about climate in North America to guess where this snake might live?"
Listed below are four reasons that students might not want to take their schoolwork seriously or to try very hard to succeed at classroom tasks. Which one of these reasons is consistent with the concept of self-efficacy?
Carol doesn't think she has the ability to do the work successfully.
Three of the following are examples of instrumental conditioning. Which one is not?
Carol's room has been a disaster area for more than a month, with toys and clothes lying about everywhere. Carol's mother has told Carol that, once the room has been cleaned, they will spend a day at the zoo. There is no noticeable improvement in Carol's housekeeping habits.
Which one of the following statements best describes Piaget's view of how children acquire knowledge about the world?
Children actively construct their own view of the world from their experiences with the environment.
Which one of the following students best fits the pattern associated with being at risk?
Evan is doing poorly in all of his classes because of repeated absenteeism and failure to turn in assignments.
Children's self-concepts become increasingly stable, and therefore increasingly more difficult to change, as they grow older. Using what you have learned about the development of students' sense of self, choose the most likely explanation for the increasing stability of the self-concept over time:
Children will behave in ways consistent with their self-concepts, thereby reaffirming their views of themselves.
Which one of the following individuals clearly has state anxiety?
Chris panics when he discovers he studied the wrong chapter for today's quiz.
Which one of the following is an example of vicarious punishment?
Connie sees her friend Maria scolded for chewing gum in class. She quickly takes her own gum out of her mouth.
Which one of the following students is most likely to have facilitating anxiety?
Dave is nervous about doing well in the 100-meter dash.
Which one of the following is the best example of problem-based learning?
Devising a way to move a large, heavy object using principles of physics
Many children lack metacognitive knowledge. This is reflected in the fact that they:
Don't know very much about how to learn
Which one of the following best illustrates Piaget's concept of accommodation?
Donna revises her understanding of what clouds are like when she studies them in science.
According to Erik Erikson, students' ability to trust those around them initially stems from:
Experiences with adults during infancy
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 students is displaying extrinsic motivation?
Elbert wants to become a professional football player so others will admire him.
Conditions for internal motivations to occur
Engage in and thereby model valued activities themselves. • Provide a warm, responsive, and supportive environment (addressing children's need 1. External regulation: Learners are initially motivated to behave in certain ways, based primarily on the external consequences that will follow the behaviors; that is, the learners are extrinsically motivated. 2. Introjection: Learners begin to behave in ways that gain the approval of others, partly as a way of protecting and enhancing their sense of self. They feel guilty when they violate certain standards for behavior but do not fully understand the rationale behind these standards. 3. Identification: Learners now see some behaviors and activities as being personally important or valuable for them. 4. Integration: Learners integrate certain behaviors and activities into their overall system of motives and values. In essence, these behaviors become a central part of their identity and general sense of self. Find a reasonable balance between giving students autonomy in their actions and imposing reasonable limits on their behavior. Conditions are challenge, curiosity, control, fantasy, competition, cooperation and recognition
Cognitive Approach to Learning
Focuses on the understanding of information and concepts separate from the behaviour itself. For example, in the opening case study, Kanesha thinks about the nasal bone and humerus in ways that should help her remember them. However, she thinks about the sternum in a way that interferes with her ability to remember it correctly, and she gives little or no thought to why certain other bones have particular names. The extent to which Kanesha thinks about the material she needs to learn—and also how she thinks about it—affects her performance on the quiz.
Sam is a very talented dancer; he also shows considerable creativity in art class. He finds math and science classes very difficult, but he loves to read and tell stories to his many friends. Which view of intelligence is best reflected in Sam's abilities?
Gardner's multiple intelligences
Lorenzo complains to his teacher, "When the textbook author talks about the importance of recycling, he doesn't explain how the advantages outweigh the disadvantages."
Have students relate new information to things they already know about the world.
Jeffrey needs to study for an upcoming exam. He does a number of things to prepare for the exam, four of which are listed below. Three of these illustrate metacognition. Which one reflects little or no any metacognitive activity?
He directs his eyes to the first page of his textbook.
Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences
He suggests that people have at least eight distinctly different abilities or multiple intelligences that are relatively independent of one another
Authoritative parents can best be characterized as having which type of relationship with their children?
High expectations, loving support, and shared decision making
positive reinforcement
Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.
negative reinforcement
Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (Note: negative reinforcement is not punishment.)
Which one of the following statements best reflects Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence?
Intelligent behavior is a function of how well people draw on their prior experiences and cognitively process information in order to adapt to their particular environmental situation.
IQ Scores
Intelligent quotient scores that are determined by comparing student's perfor- mance on a given test with the performance of others in the same age-group. This is a very important point—an IQ score is reflective of a student's cognitive abilities at a particular age, compared to students of the same age. A score of 100 indicates average performance on the test: Students with this score have performed better than half of their age-mates but not as well as the other half. Scores well below 100 indicate below-average performance on the test; scores well above 100 indicate above- average performance.
Which one of the following is the best example of qualitative research?
Interviewing middle school students about cliques at their school
What is the primary purpose of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)?
It guarantees an education to students with cognitive, emotional and physical disabilities and establishes educational policies for that purpose.
Which one of the following statements is most accurate about the value of homework in the elementary grades?
It has little effect on students' learning but may help them develop self-regulatory skills.
Learning theorists 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?
It moves information from the sensory register into working memory.
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?
It reached long-term memory.
Mr. Wagner stands in front of the class explaining the process of evolution. Ellen is sitting in the front row, but her mind is on the unpleasant argument she had with her best friend just before class. Based on this information, how far in Ellen's memory system did Mr. Wagner's lecture get?
It reached the sensory register
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?
It reached working memory.
IDEA
It stands for individuals with disabilities education act. This act has been amended and reauthorized several times since then, most recently in 2004 under the name Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. It currently grants educational rights from birth until age 21 for people with cognitive, emo- tional, or physical disabilities. It guarantees several rights for students with disabilities
Which one of the following teachers is definitely keeping in mind Piaget's idea that assimilation and accommodation are both necessary for learning and cognitive development to occur?
Mr. Baretta shows students how a new topic is similar to the things they already know, but also different in certain ways.
These four teachers claim to be practicing principles from social cognitive theory. Based on the following information, which one is not actually doing so?
Mr. Carlson tells his class he smokes cigarettes but admits that he wishes he'd never started.
Three of the following strategies should help students become more self-regulating. Which strategy will not promote self-regulation?
Mr. D'Angelo asks a teacher aide to keep a close eye on Darlene and, when necessary, to remind her to stay on task.
Three of the following are authentic activities related to using a computer. Which one is, in and of itself, not an authentic activity?
Learning how to save files on a hard drive
Wait time
Length of time a teacher pauses, after either asking a question or hearing a student's comment, before saying something.
Lily is 10 years old. She gets a score of 97 on an IQ test. What does this tell us about her intellectual ability?
Lily's score is about average for her age-group.
Which one of the following is the best example of critical thinking as the textbook defines the term?
Lorenzo complains to his teacher, "When the textbook author talks about the importance of recycling, he doesn't explain how the advantages outweigh the disadvantages."
Which one of the following best describes socialization as developmental psychologists use the term?
Molding children's behavior to enable effective functioning within their culture.
Trait Motivation
More permanent and culturally acquired motivation
Which one of the following teachers is using a strategy that reflects the concept of distributed intelligence?
Mr. Arvis encourages his students to use their calculators when solving algebraic word problems.
Bill's behaviors in Ms. Kennedy's class are really distracting to other students. For example, he whispers to the boy beside him when Ms. Kennedy is giving directions on how to do an assignment. He flings paper clips at a girl across the room. He makes strange grunting noises that a few classmates find amusing. Ms. Kennedy glares at him or admonishes him whenever he behaves in a distracting way, yet his inappropriate behaviors are increasing rather than decreasing. Which one of the following interpretations best explains why Bill's behaviors are increasing?
Ms. Kennedy is positively reinforcing him for the distracting behaviors.
Sociocultural theory suggests that with development, children acquire many cognitive tools of their culture. Which teacher is most clearly applying this idea?
Ms. Turiel shows students how to graph their research results so that they can more easily see trends in the data.
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.
Which one of the following statements most accurately describes the relationship between IQ scores and classroom performance?
On average, students with higher IQ scores do better in school than students with lower IQ scores.
child maltreatment
One form of child maltreatment is child neglect: Parents fail to provide nutritious meals, adequate clothing, and other basic necessities of life. In other cases parents or other family members abuse children physically, sexually, or emotionally. Possible indi- cators of neglect or abuse are chronic hunger, lack of warm clothing in cold weather, untreated medical needs, frequent or serious physical injuries (e.g., bruises, burns, broken bones), and excep- tional knowledge about sexual matters.
In general, experimental studies have which one of the following advantages over descriptive and correlational studies?
Only experimental studies allow us to identify the possible factors influencing behavior.
The textbook distinguishes between teacher-directed and learner-directed forms of instruction. Which one of the following best describes how teachers should view these two approaches?
The best approach depends on the characteristics of the students and the goals of instruction.
Vygotsky's concept of zone of proximal development refers to:
The range of tasks children can accomplish only with support
social cognitive theory
The view of psychologists who emphasize behavior, environment, and cognition as the key factors in development.
Social constructivism
Theoretical perspective that focuses on people's collective efforts to impose meaning on the world.
A research study finds that 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
Which one of the following is a true statement about IQ scores?
They are derived from comparisons with the test performance of others.
Ms. Jefferson promises her students special treats if they turn in their homework assignments the following day. However, Ms. Jefferson forgets to bring the treats she promised. From the perspective of social cognitive theory, what has just happened to the students who turned in their homework assignments?
They have been punished for doing so.
Three component model of memory
They put what is learned into storage, then encoding and then retrieval
qualitative research
They yield nonnumerical data—perhaps in the form of verbal reports, written documents, pictures, videos, or maps—that capture many aspects of a complex situation. For example, a qualitative study might involve one-on-one interviews in which students describe their hopes for the future, a detailed case study of interpersonal relation- ships within a tight-knit clique of adolescent girls, or in-depth observations of several teachers who create distinctly different psychological atmospheres in their classrooms.
quantitative research
They yield numbers that reflect percentages, frequencies, or averages related to certain characteristics or phenomena. For example, a quantitative study might provide information about students' scores on achievement tests, students' responses to rating-scale questionnaires, or school district records of students' attendance and dropout rates.
Which one of the following statements best describes Vygotsky's concept of internalization?
Through their social interactions with other people, children acquire ways of mentally approaching and thinking about a task.
Recommended Practices for classroom lectures
To some degree, the instructional strategies we choose must also take into account students' ages and developmental levels. For example, strategies that involve a lot of active responding and frequent feedback (e.g., direct instruction, mastery learning) may be especially appropriate for younger students
As human beings, we encounter a great many stimuli at any one time. Which one of the following most accurately reflects cognitive psychologists' perspective about how we respond to all these stimuli?
We must select the things we think are most important to learn and remember, and ignore the rest.
Which one of the following strategies is most likely to promote self-regulation in students?
When assigning a lengthy research project, Mr. Barnett advises his students to break the project down into a number of smaller tasks and then to reinforce themselves after they complete each one.
What impact does teacher wait time have on students' classroom performance?
When wait time is several seconds, students are more likely to answer questions.
Which one of the following is the best example of positive transfer?
Zelda uses the formula for calculating the area of circles when she wants to figure out how much bigger a 10-inch pizza is than a 7-inch pizza.
trait anxiety
a chronic condition that often hampers performance.
Schema
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
intristic motivation
a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake
extrinsic motivation
a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment
situated cognition
a theoretical position in social constructivism suggesting that learning depends on, and cannot be separated from, the context in which it occurs For example, if students associate principles of geometry only with math classes, they may not retrieve those principles at times when geometry would come in handy—say, when trying to determine whether a 10-inch pizza that costs $8.00 is a better value than an 8-inch pizza that costs $6.00.
classical conditioning
a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
accomidation
adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
Mr. Johnson teaches a class of twenty 8-year-old third graders. His goal for the upcoming school year is to help at least 50% of his students reach formal operations. From the perspective of Piaget's theory, we would expect that Mr. Johnson's goal is
almost impossible to attain.
In the middle of a difficult exam, Robert tells his teacher that his stomach hurts, and the teacher immediately sends him to the school nurse. On several later occasions when he has a difficult test or assignment, Robert again tells his teacher that he doesn't feel well. Each time he is sent to the school nurse without completing his work. From a behaviorist perspective, we can say that Robert is:
being negatively reinforced for complaining about his stomach.
Central to Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development is the idea that children increasingly make better sense of their world:
by interacting with more experienced people who mediate their understandings.
Classical conditioning and instrumental conditioning are two types of learning described by behaviorists. A major difference between them is that:
classically conditioned responses are involuntary, whereas responses learned through instrumental conditioning are voluntary.
Edward is severely beaten by his alcoholic father on several occasions. Before long, Edward begins to shake whenever his father approaches. In this situation, Edward's father is:
conditioned stimulus
descriptive study
does exactly what its name implies: It describes a situation. Descriptive studies might give us information about the characteristics of students, teachers, or schools. They might also provide information about how often certain events or behaviors occur. In general, descriptive studies enable us to draw conclusions about the way things are—the current state of affairs.
critical thinking
evaluating the accuracy, credibility, and worth of information and lines of reasoning. Critical thinking is reflective, logical, and evidence-based. It also has a purposeful quality to it—that is, the learner thinks critically in order to achieve a particular goal
correlational study
explores possible associations among two or more variables. For instance, it might tell us how closely various human characteristics are associated with one another, or it might give us information about the consistency with which certain human behaviors occur in conjunction with certain environmental conditions. In general, correlational studies enable us to draw conclusions about correlation: the extent to which two characteristics or phenomena tend to be found together or to change together.
A biology teacher wants students to remember the various components of a cell (nucleus, cytoplasm, cell membrane). Considering what research tells us about encoding and retrieval, the teacher would be well advised to help students encode information about the cell:
in both visual and verbal forms, because multiple forms of encoding increase the likelihood of retrieval.
Assimilation
interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
Problem-Based Learning (PBL)
is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject through the experience of creating a problem. Students learn both thinking strategies and domain knowledge
Experimental study
is a study in which the researcher intentionally changes, or manipulates, one or more aspects of the environment (often called independent variables) and then measures the effects of such changes on something else. In educational research the "something else" being affected (a dependent variable) is typically some aspect of student behavior—perhaps end-of-semester grades, persistence in trying to solve diffi- cult math problems, or ability to interact appropriately with peers. In a good experiment, a re- searcher separates and controls variables, testing the possible effects of one independent variable while holding all other potentially influential variables constant.
facilitating anxiety
level of anxiety (usually relatively low) that enhances performance
Creativity
like problem solving, is a form of transfer, because it involves applying previously learned knowledge or skills to a new situation. Psychologists have offered varying opinions about its nature, but in general creativity has two components:
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:
modeling and vicarious reinforcement.
Two boys are fighting on school grounds during recess. Fighting is against school rules, and the boys know this. Even so, a teacher who sees them lets them continue to fight rather than punishing them for doing so. Judging from what social cognitive theorists say regarding what happens when expected punishments don't occur, we can predict that these boys will be:
more likely to fight in the future.
Sternberg's Triarchic Theory
our intelligence is best classified into three areas that predict real-world success: analytical, creative, and practical
authoritarian parenting
parents expect complete and immediate compliance; they neither negotiate expecta- tions nor provide reasons for their requests. In many Asian American and Hispanic families, high demands for obedience are made within the context of close, supportive parent-child relation- ships. Underlying the message of control is a more important message: "I love you and want you to do well, but it's equally important that you act for the good of the family and community" (X. Chen & Wang, 2010; Halgunseth, Ispa, & Rudy, 2006; Rothbaum & Trommsdorff, 2007). Authoritarian parenting is also more common in impoverished economic environments. When families live in low-income, inner-city neighborhoods where danger potentially lurks around every corner, parents may better serve their children by being strict and directive about activities
higher level questioning
questions that require them to use previously learned information in new ways. Questions that require divergent thinking can be especially helpful. For example, in history lessons we might ask such questions such as these: • In a lesson on the Pony Express as a method of U.S. mail delivery in the 1860s: "In what differ- ent ways might people have carried mail across the country at that time?" (Feldhusen & Treffinger, 1980) • In a lesson on Angkor Wat, an enormous stone temple complex built in the 12th century in what is now Cambodia: "How might the Khmer people have built these temples using massive blocks (400 pounds each) with no cement?" (courtesy of Jeffrey Ormrod)
Stages of Piaget's Theory
sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational
A major benefit to teaching study skills as part of each course taught rather than in a stand alone "study skills" course is to avoid:
situated learning and cognition.
Weston is working on a science project and wants to make his papier-mâché 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:
specific transfer
state anxiety
temporary feeling of anxiety elicited by a threatening situation
Control group
that receives either no intervention or a placebo intervention that's unlikely to affect the dependent variable(s) in question. In many experimental studies, participants are assigned to groups randomly—for instance, by drawing names out of a hat. Such random assignment is apt to yield groups that are, on average, roughly equivalent on other variables (e.g., pre-existing ability levels, personality characteristics, motiva- tion) that might affect the dependent variable(s).
transfer
the extent to which knowledge and skills acquired in one situation affect a person's learning or performance in a subsequent situation. Following are examples. There is positive transfer, negative transfer and general transfer.
Automaticity
the ability to process information with little or no effort. As an example, think of driving a car, a complicated skill that you can probably perform easily. Your first attempts at driving many years ago may have required a great deal of mental effort. But perhaps now you can drive without having to pay much attention to what you're doing. Even if your car has a standard transmission that frequently requires stepping on a clutch and shifting gears, driving is, for you, an automatic activity.
self-regulation
the exercise of voluntary control over the self to bring the self into line with preferred standards
Modeling
the process of observing and imitating a behavior
Distributed intelligence
thinking facilitated by physical objects and technology, social support, and concepts and symbols of one's culture
Social cognitive theory can best be characterized as being concerned with learning
through observations of others
When Judy becomes verbally aggressive toward her peers, she is placed in a quiet and boring room for five minutes. The procedure being used here is most commonly known as:
time out
Classical conditioning typically occurs when:
two stimuli are presented at about the same time.
instrumental conditioning
type of learning in which a behavioral response can be conditioned through reinforcement - either punishment or rewards associated with undesirable or desirable behavior
authoritative parenting
which combines affection and respect for children with reasonable restrictions on behavior. Authoritative parents provide a loving and supportive home, hold high expectations and standards for performance, explain why behaviors are or are not acceptable, enforce house- hold rules consistently, include children in decision making, and provide age-appropriate op- portunities for autonomy. Children from authoritative homes tend to be happy, energetic, self- confident, and likeable. They make friends easily and show self-control and concern for the rights and needs of others. Children of authoritative parents appear well adjusted, in part, be- cause their behavior fits well with the values espoused by mainstream Western culture. They listen respectfully to others, follow reasonable rules for behavior, work well independently, and strive for academic achievement