educ 261 ch 7
b
In which one of the following examples is metacognition most clearly illustrated? a. Mary knows all the letters of the alphabet before she begins kindergarten. b. Fran knows how much of a book she is likely to remember a month later. c. At age 6, Billy can read fourth-grade-level books. d. Alex has a photographic memory that enables him to remember almost everything he sees.
c
Of the following, the most effective strategy for promoting advanced thinking skills in students who have advanced cognitive development is to: a. teach techniques for minimizing the load on working memory when solving complicated problems. b. model general thinking skills that will transfer across content areas. c. encourage and respond positively when students ask unusual or unanticipated questions. d. provide opportunities for these students to collaborate with students with diverse abilities and interests.
a
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: a. negative transfer. b. general transfer. c. rote learning. d. mental set in problem solving.
c
Three of the following are accurate statements about epistemic beliefs. Which statement is not accurate? a. Students who view learning as an active, constructive process are more likely to undergo conceptual change when it is warranted. b. Students who believe that learning is a slow, gradual process are more likely to persist in their efforts to understand classroom material. c. Young children are apt to believe that conflicting points of view on a topic may be equally valid; as they get older, they become increasingly convinced that one perspective is almost invariably more valid than others. d. As students move through the high school years, some of them increasingly begin to realize that mastering academic subject matter involves understanding concepts and their interrelationships rather than memorizing discrete facts.
c
Three of the following are accurate statements about factors that affect transfer. Which statement is inaccurate? a. Students are more likely to transfer what they have learned when they have learned it in a meaningful, rather than rote, fashion. b. Students are more likely to transfer what they have learned when they have studied it for a lengthy period of time. c. Students are more likely to transfer what they have learned when they see it as "belonging" to a particular academic subject area. d. Students are more likely to transfer what they have learned when they have learned general principles rather than specific facts.
d
Three of the following are accurate statements about how complex cognitive processes might be different among students with diverse backgrounds and abilities. Which statement is false? a. Students who have been brought up in a culture that encourages respect for elders are less likely to engage in critical thinking. b. On average, students with learning disabilities have more difficulty with academic problem-solving tasks than their nondisabled peers. c. Students with mental retardation tend to have trouble transferring what they learn in school to new situations. d. Students who have consistently lived in a single culture tend to be more creative than students who have had regular exposure to two or more cultures.
c
Given research on effective study skills, which one of the following pieces of advice should you not give to a struggling student? a. "Identify the main ideas in what you're reading." b. "Write a brief summary of what you've learned." c. "Take notes on a lecture only after it's over." d. "Test yourself on what you've read."
a
How does note taking affect students' recall of lecture information? a. It increases recall. b. It increases recall for details but not for main ideas. c. It increases recall only if the notes are quite brief. d. It interferes with recall, because students are less likely to pay attention when they're taking notes.
c
If we want to enhance students' metacognitive processes during problem solving, we would be most likely to: a. ask students to use algorithms rather than heuristics to solve problems. b. ask students to use heuristics rather than algorithms to solve problems. c. suggest questions that students might ask themselves as they work on problems. d. encourage students to encode problems visually rather than verbally whenever possible.
a
If you wanted students to learn how to critically evaluate what they read on Internet websites, you would be most likely to: a. ask students to consider the motives of the people creating the websites. b. suggest that students check to see how recently the information was posted on the websites. c. urge students to disregard any websites that aren't sponsored by an organization they've heard of. d. tell students that websites with eye-catching graphics are usually designed by professionals and therefore offer credible information.
d
Imagine you are a high school principal who wants students to develop effective study strategies before they graduate. With research about effective study skills programs in mind, which one of the following approaches would be the best one to take? a. Purchase textbooks that are about two years below students' present reading levels. b. Have a one-semester study skills course that all students take in ninth grade. c. Have a one-semester study skills course that all students take in twelfth grade. d. Have teachers incorporate study skills training into the specific academic courses they teach.
d
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: a. general transfer. b. intuitive transfer. c. negative transfer. d. specific transfer.
a
A higher-level question that helps to foster creativity asks students to respond in which one of the following ways? a. To develop an answer not specifically provided in class b. To recall information from more advanced classes c. To recall information learned several years ago d. To engage in both positive and negative transfer
b
A student who has an illusion of knowing is most likely to: a. elaborate on difficult-to-learn material. b. express surprise about a low test score. c. summarize what he or she has just read. d. know the general meaning of material but be unable to repeat it verbatim.
d
Adolescents who learn a second language often apply patterns of speech production used in their native tongue and thereby speak the second language with an accent. This phenomenon can best be described as an example of: a. general transfer. b. situated cognition. c. positive transfer. d. negative transfer.
a
As a sixth grader, Mario shows exceptional creativity in his art class when using pastels for the first time. Which one of the following predictions is most warranted from this information? a. He is likely to show artistic creativity when using watercolor paints as well. b. When his class is asked to invent a device to help keep the classroom cool on hot days, he will develop one of the most creative solutions. c. He will include many vivid descriptions of people and places in the short stories he writes. d. If he is taught to play a musical instrument, he will probably show creativity in how he plays it.
c
As a teacher, you are concerned that many of your students are learning less than they think they are learning as they read the textbook. Your best strategy would be to: a. have them underline or highlight at least 50% of what they read. b. instruct them to read the book two or three times instead of just once. c. suggest questions that they can ask themselves as they read. d. ask them to copy difficult-to-understand sentences in their notebooks.
c
Calvin is 7 years old and in second grade. Given children's typical metacognitive abilities at different age levels, which one of the following is most likely to be true of Calvin? a. He recognizes that learning is an active, constructive process. b. He realizes that mastering a topic might take him considerable time and practice. c. He is overly optimistic about how much he can learn and remember in a short time period. d. He believes that people's conflicting opinions about a topic may all be "right" to some degree.
b
Considering factors that affect transfer, identify the group of students most likely to transfer what their class is studying. a. Students in Mr. Allen's geography class are studying several countries this week, memorizing the locations of each one's major rivers and cities. b. Students in Ms. Elbert's music class are studying major chords in different keys this semester, practicing each one over and over again in different songs. c. Students in Mr. Ivy's science class are studying the characteristics of mammals and reptiles this week. d. Students in Ms. Martin's social studies class are studying major events in the history of Mexico this month, beginning with the Aztec empire and continuing until the present time.
c
Considering the textbook's views on general transfer, which one of the following is most likely to transfer across very different situations? a. The ability to be creative b. The ability to memorize a poem c. The ability to take good notes on a lecture d. The ability to remember complex ideas
d
Considering trends in metacognitive development, choose the only accurate statement among the following alternatives. a. Students generally know the things they know and the things they don't. b. Elementary students have a better sense of what they do and don't know than high school students do. c. Students tend to know a great many things that they don't realize they know. d. Students across the K-12 grade span often think they know things that they really don't know.
a
Considering what research has revealed about transfer, in which of the following situations is transfer least likely to happen? a. Students who have studied rules of formal logic are now studying chemistry. b. Students who know the basic addition facts are now studying the basic subtraction facts. c. Students who have learned to play softball are now learning baseball. d. Students who know Spanish are now learning French.
c
Creativity often involves divergent thinking. Which one of the following is the best example of divergent thinking? a. Marsha builds a bookcase by following directions she has found in a hobby magazine. b. Frank solves several multiplication problems using a strategy he has learned for solving "9s" problems. c. Lacking any wooden blocks to build an arch for his toy soldiers to march under, Thomas builds an arch using upside-down paper cups. d. After reading in a library book about what hamsters like to eat, Jennifer gives her pet hamster a diet of vegetables, fruit, and hamster pellets to help him grow faster.
b
From the perspective of cognitive psychology, why should we not expect students to solve complex problems in their heads? a. The capacity for complex problem solving does not emerge until late adolescence. b. Students' working memories can hold only a few pieces of information at a time. c. Asking students to solve complex problems promotes rote memorization rather than meaningful learning. d. By trying to solve complex problems in their heads, students are likely to "unlearn" some of the information stored in their long-term memories.
d
In a science lesson on heat, Ms. Jones explains that heat is the result of molecules moving back and forth very quickly and that gases are heated more quickly than liquids. The next day she asks her class the following four questions. Which one requires a complex cognitive process? a. "Who can remember yesterday's discussion about heat?" b. "What is heat?" c. "Which one is heated more quickly—a gas or a liquid?" d. "Why is it cooler near the ocean on a hot summer day?"
a
In which one of the following situations are we most likely to find transfer from one learning task to the other? a. Alice learns how to add two-digit numbers and then studies how to add three-digit numbers. b. Brianne learns how to plant corn and then learns how to prune a hedge. c. Cathy learns early British history and then learns early Japanese history. d. Devlin learns how to play softball and then learns how to play a card game.
b
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? a. He allocates adequate study time for the exam. b. He directs his eyes to the first page of his textbook. c. He identifies a suitable mnemonic technique that will help him remember a difficult piece of information. d. He tests himself to see if he is sufficiently prepared for the exam.
a
Judging from the textbook's discussion of students' ability to identify important information, when will students be most likely to identify something in a lesson as being important? a. When their teacher writes it on the chalkboard b. When it is an abstract theme that underlies a lesson c. When it is presented at the beginning of a lesson d. When it is presented at the end of a lesson
a
Many children lack metacognitive knowledge. This is reflected in the fact that they: a. Don't know very much about how to learn b. Have difficulty with such mathematical concepts as proportions and negative numbers c. Tend to be easily distracted from their schoolwork d. Don't perform very well on intelligence test items requiring abstract thought
c
Mary is majoring in drama. Mary's parents want her to study advanced mathematics as a way of strengthening her mind; with a stronger mind, they argue, she will be able to learn her lines more easily when she is rehearsing for a play. Based on their reasoning, which one of the following perspectives of transfer do Mary's parents hold? a. Information processing b. Situated cognition c. Formal discipline d. Specific transfer
d
Meshawn is thinking about the many different ways in which the concept of a lever might be applied to everyday problems. Meshawn is exhibiting: a. bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. b. situated cognition. c. convergent thinking. d. divergent thinking.
a
One primary benefit of an intelligent tutoring system for fostering the development of students' problem-solving skills is that such systems: a. provide individualized instruction and scaffolding for a particular set of skills. b. also foster student creativity and metacognitive skill at the same time. c. are gender-neutral and less culturally biased than teachers are. d. require students to complete challenging but authentic activities.
a
Only one of the following statements about children with special needs is true. Which one is false? a. Because they learn so quickly, children who are gifted rarely use effective study strategies. b. Some students with social or behavioral problems have few effective strategies to help them learn academic subject matter. c. Students who show significant delays in general cognitive development also show delays in metacognitive development. d. Students with learning disabilities often benefit from explicit instruction about effective learning strategies.
b
Research indicates that instruction about learning and study strategies is most likely to be effective when: a. students focus on learning one specific study strategy. b. students understand why certain study techniques are helpful. c. students practice strategies independently rather than in collaboration with peers. d. students focus on learning facts rather than on developing complex cognitive processes.
a
Students' epistemic beliefs can best be described as students' views about: a. what knowledge is and how it is acquired. b. which careers are most suitable for their abilities and talents. c. how long they are likely to remember the things they learn in school. d. what instructional techniques are most likely to help them learn classroom material.
a
Teachers who want to help students develop epistemic beliefs that will positively affect their study strategies can do so most effectively by: a. communicating to the students that learning is active because knowledge is dynamic and always changing. b. teaching the students how and when to use particular study strategies. c. reducing the cognitive load involved in classroom tasks so that students can complete them within the allotted time. d. helping students to identify important information and take clear, meaningful notes.
d
Three of the following are examples of comprehension monitoring. Which one is not? a. After reading a chapter in a textbook, Annette makes sure she has accomplished the objectives listed on the chapter's first page. b. Bruce asks himself questions about the material he is reading and tries to answer them. c. Cara stops at the end of each section to see if she can summarize what she's just read. d. Dwayne looks at all the headings and subheadings in a chapter before he begins to read the chapter itself.
b
Three of the following are true statements about cultural differences in metacognition and learning strategies. Which statement is false? a. In comparison with Western schools, Asian schools are more likely to communicate to students that successful learning involves hard work and persistence. b. School children in mainstream Western societies are expected to memorize things word for word more frequently than is true for children in other cultures. c. For some people in China, school learning is a moral as well as academic enterprise: It enables a person to contribute to his or her society. d. Students in the United States are more likely to challenge the teacher than are students in the Far East.
b
Three of the following factors influence students' ability to use effective study strategies. Which one is largely irrelevant to students' use of effective strategies? a. Whether they've been taught effective strategies b. Whether they are "morning people" or "night owls" c. How well they have monitored their comprehension during previous study sessions d. Whether an assessment task calls for word-for-word memorization or true understanding
d
Three of the following strategies illustrate the use of metacognitive processes in problem solving. Which strategy is least metacognitive in nature? a. Breaking a complex problem into smaller, easier subproblems b. Continually monitoring progress toward problem solution c. Identifying a logical approach to solving a problem d. Looking up the correct answer at the back of the textbook
d
Three of the following strategies should help your students solve ill-defined problems more effectively. Which strategy is least likely to be useful to them? a. Teach them to break a problem into several smaller, better-defined problems. b. Suggest that they begin by brainstorming a variety of possible approaches to solving the problem. c. Teach them how to use the library or Internet to find any information they may need to solve the problem. d. If they get overly frustrated with the problem, give them the correct answer and explain the algorithm you used to find it.
b
Three of the following strategies should promote students' creative behavior. Which one is unlikely to promote creativity? a. Encouraging students to feel proud of their creative accomplishments. b. Introducing a subject in class and then intentionally stopping when students have only a partial understanding of it. c. Asking questions that get students thinking about classroom material in a different way than they might otherwise. d. Reminding students that occasional failures are an inevitable part of the creative process.
a
Three of the following teachers should help their students solve problems more effectively? Which teacher probably will not? a. Ms. Azari teaches students abstract principles of logic (e.g., "If all As are Bs and all Bs are Cs, then..."). b. Ms. Bennington has students work on difficult problems in small, cooperative groups. c. When students struggle with arithmetic word problems, Mr. Costas gives them subtle hints about how to proceed. d. Mr. Driver presents many ill-defined problems in biology and asks students to make each one more specific and clear-cut.
b
Three of the following teaching strategies should promote critical thinking. Which strategy, although beneficial in other ways, will not necessarily promote critical thinking skills? a. Portray the sciences and social sciences as disciplines that will evolve as new evidence comes in. b. Have students relate new information to things they already know about the world. c. Have students debate a controversial issue by taking a perspective in direct opposition to what they actually believe. d. Ask students to read a persuasive essay and look for possible flaws in the author's line of reasoning
a
To foster development of metacognitive skills, class activities that involve hypermedia are most effective when they: a. require students to review and reflect on the information they find and make adjustments in their strategies as they progress. b. allow students a very high degree of freedom to search for and select information. c. are highly structured, with a few opportunities for students to make meaningful choices. d. involve well-established computer-based learning environments that are commercially available.
d
Which is the best example of someone using a heuristic in problem solving? a. John wants to buy a computer. He compares prices at different computer stores and buys whatever is least expensive. b. Susan wants to know how long it will take her to drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles. She knows that the distance is 400 miles, and she figures she will average 50 miles an hour with stops, so she predicts the trip will take 8 hours. c. Vinnie has a round hot tub that is 6 feet in diameter; he wants to build a top to cover it. He remembers the formula for calculating the area of a circle and works out how many square feet of lumber he needs. d. Marion can't think of a plot for the short story she needs to write. She breaks her task into smaller pieces: First she will decide who or what her main character will be, then she will think of a conflict for the character to experience, and finally she will identify a reasonable resolution of the conflict.
b
Which one of the following alternatives most clearly illustrates general transfer rather than specific transfer? a. The skills Arnold has developed as a marathon runner help him later in life when he jogs for exercise. b. Brian has learned study skills in his sociology class that he also finds useful in his nutrition class. c. Conway's knowledge of addition and subtraction helps him balance his checkbook. d. David's knowledge of the human digestive system helps him understand the digestive system of an earthworm.
b
Which one of the following behaviors meets both of the essential criteria for creativity? a. Modeling himself after a popular TV character, Al shaves all the hair off of his head with the hope that he will win the admiration of the girls in his class. b. 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. c. Trina douses her running shoes in perfume to keep them from smelling after gym class; although they're too soggy to wear for the rest of the week, they do smell better. d. Kevin decorates his room with posters and black lights in the same way that his friend Steve has decorated his room.
a
Which one of the following best describes a classroom that has a culture of transfer? a. Teacher and students regularly look for ways to apply what they're studying. b. The teacher encourages students to share their study strategies with one another. c. Students from diverse backgrounds meet in small groups to brainstorm potential solutions to social problems. d. Classroom topics are portrayed as complex bodies of information rather than as collections of discrete facts.
d
Which one of the following classes is most likely to foster students' creativity? a. Mr. Lester's class, where students are allowed to dabble freely in whatever subject area they want during a ten-minute "creativity break" at the end of each school day. b. Ms. Patrick's class, where students are drilled until they memorize specific facts word for word. c. Ms. Francisco's class, where students are expected to perform quickly yet creatively in order to get a good grade. d. Mr. Logan's class, where students are allowed to spend a 45-minute block of time every week experimenting with the artistic medium of their choice.
c
Which one of the following examples illustrates an illusion of knowing? a. Anthony doesn't know how to swim. b. Belinda doesn't understand the concept of entropy. c. Corissa thinks she understands the concept of inertia, but she really doesn't. d. Daryl doesn't think he is a very good tennis player, even though he is the best player on the school tennis team.
b
Which one of the following examples most clearly illustrates how a mental set can interfere with problem solving? a. Abigail wants to make amends with a boyfriend she recently fought with. However, the boy tells her that he is now dating someone else. b. Bernadette's car won't start. Because she has always driven her car to work before, it doesn't occur to her to take the bus to work. c. Corinne needs to calculate the volume of a pyramid. She knows she learned the correct formula in class, but she can't seem to remember it now. d. Danielle is working on a jigsaw puzzle. One of the pieces to the puzzle is missing.
c
Which one of the following examples most clearly illustrates the effect of mental set on problem solving? a. Albert can't find the right size of test tube to complete a chemistry lab. b. Bradley is trying to solve a physics problem on a class exam. He is so anxious that he can't remember how to do the problem. c. Charlie is doing a series of addition problems. He overlooks the subtraction sign on the last problem, so he adds when he should subtract. d. Doug is angry that another boy stole his bicycle, and so he steals a bicycle from someone else.
c
Which one of the following is a higher-level question? a. "Can you remember the three categories of rocks that we studied yesterday?" b. "Now that I have done one multiplication problem on the board, can you do the next two multiplication problems?" c. "Can you use what we learned about snakes and what we know about climate in North America to guess where this snake might live?" d. "Here are the same rocks we looked at yesterday. Can you sort them into three piles—sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic—the way we did yesterday?"
b
Which one of the following is the best example of a covert (rather than overt) strategy that one might use while studying a textbook chapter? a. Using chapter headings and subheadings to make a rough outline of the chapter b. Working hard to keep one's mind from wandering while reading the chapter c. Using self-stick notes to mark sections that are hard to understand d. Writing a summary of the key ideas in the chapter
b
Which one of the following is the best example of critical thinking as the textbook defines the term? a. Justin says to his friend Victor, "I think I can guess why you're feeling sad today." b. 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." c. Muriel asks her teacher, "Why do we have to start school so early in the morning? I have trouble thinking clearly before ten o'clock in the morning." d. Rachel mumbles to herself as she reads her history book, "Why does the year 1929 sound so familiar? Oh, yes, now I know. That's the year the stock market crashed."
b
Which one of the following is the best example of general transfer? a. Iris is trying to learn how to ride a bicycle, and she uses the pedaling motion she learned while riding a tricycle. b. Melinda is trying to learn the 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, so she makes up a memory trick similar to one she used when she had to learn the 12 cranial nerves in biology. c. Polly is trying to learn division facts and suddenly realizes that these facts are simply the reverse of facts she learned when she studied multiplication. d. Thomas is learning how to play a new computer game in his homeroom class and uses the same "jump and shoot" strategy he learned while playing video games at home.
a
Which one of the following is the best example of negative transfer? a. Nellie sees five squared (52) in her math book and reads it as "fifty-two." b. Fred knows he can get Bs in his classes without having to study at all. c. José is trying to remember when World War II began, so he recalls all he can about European history and correctly concludes that the war must have begun in the late 1930s. d. Eleanor wants to tie a string securely to her pencil so that she can hang it from her notebook, but she has forgotten how to tie a square knot.
c
Which one of the following is the best example of positive transfer? a. Robert is trying to learn the spelling of the word shepherd; he remembers how he learned to spell lighthouse by putting two words together and so writes "sheepherd." b. Vince notices that rules of grammar are not always the same in English and Japanese. c. 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. d. David is trying to learn to program a computer. He reads his programming manual but is confused by some of its instructions.
d
Which one of the following is the best illustration of metacognition? a. Andrea is studying for a spelling test. She writes each spelling word five times in her nicest handwriting. b. Betsy stays up late studying for a geography test. The following morning in school, she is too tired to think straight during the test. c. Connie is preparing to take the SAT Reasoning Test, so she checks out an SAT preparation book from the local library and reads it from cover to cover. d. Dolly is studying for a history test. She knows that she has trouble with dates, so she checks herself by giving herself a short quiz after each chapter.
d
Which one of the following pairs of students best illustrates a difference in epistemic beliefs? a. Irene likes going to school because that's where she sees her friends every day, but Isabelle likes going to school because of all the new things she learns there. b. Julie thinks that doing well in high school is important for getting into a good college, but Janette thinks that she can get into college with mediocre grades as long as she has high SAT scores. c. Loren is well aware of the criteria that his teacher is using to evaluate his classroom performance, but Luke is clueless about why he is doing poorly in the same teacher's class. d. Keith thinks that learning geography means memorizing place names, but Kareem thinks that learning geography means understanding migration and settlement patterns.
a
Which one of the following problems is most likely to be solved with a heuristic rather than an algorithm? a. Resolving an argument b. Calculating the volume of a cylinder c. Finding the word antonym in the dictionary d. Locating books about spiders in the school library
b
Which one of the following problems is the best example of an ill-defined problem? a. Determining the average of a group of test scores b. Helping a friend whose feelings have been hurt c. Clearing a driveway after a snowstorm d. Staying dry in a rainstorm
d
Which one of the following recommendations is consistent with current beliefs about transfer? a. "Take computer programming to help you develop your analytical thinking skills." b. "Study German so you'll have an easier time learning Japanese next year." c. "Studying calculus will help you think more abstractly about the various subjects you will study in college." d. "Use your knowledge of algebra to solve this chemistry equation."
b
Which one of the following statements accurately describes the relationship between comprehension monitoring and academic achievement? a. High achievers automatically know whether they understand something, so they don't need to monitor their comprehension. b. High achievers are more likely to monitor their comprehension of class material than low achievers. c. Low achievers are more likely to ask their teacher for assistance when they don't understand something. d. Low achievers are more likely to be worried about their grades, so they monitor their comprehension frequently.
a
Which one of the following statements characterizes a well-defined problem? a. It has a clear goal. b. It can be solved only by a heuristic. c. It has several possible correct solutions. d. It is missing information that is necessary for solving the problem.
a
Which one of the following students is elaborating as he takes notes in class? a. While his math teacher demonstrates a mathematical procedure on the chalkboard, Ed writes "Meet Pat after school" in the margin of his notebook. b. Jason uses shorthand to record everything his science teacher says, hoping that it will all make sense when he reads it later. c. In his Spanish class, Hugh writes each new vocabulary word in his notebook at least three times to help him remember it. d. In science, Frank is taking notes about how water expands when it freezes and adds, "That's why our fish tank broke when I left it outside last winter."
d
Which one of the following students is elaborating as he takes notes in class? a. While his math teacher demonstrates a mathematical procedure on the chalkboard, Ed writes "Meet Pat after school" in the margin of his notebook. b. Jason uses shorthand to record everything his science teacher says, hoping that it will all make sense when he reads it later. c. In his Spanish class, Hugh writes each new vocabulary word in his notebook at least three times to help him remember it. d. In science, Frank is taking notes about how water expands when it freezes and adds, "That's why our fish tank broke when I left it outside last winter."
d
Which one of the following students is most clearly engaging in critical thinking? a. Louise has a puzzled look as she reads her textbook. "I don't understand what the author is trying to say," she thinks. b. Before turning in his astronomy test, Sam rereads his responses to the test's three essay questions. "I'm pretty sure I answered the first two questions correctly," he tells himself, "but I'm not sure about the last question." c. Raul jumps at the chance to learn how to use desktop publishing software. "I'm particularly interested in learning how to integrate text and graphics," he tells his teacher. d. As Morgan watches her lab partner experiment with a pendulum, she says, "You just changed the length of the string at the same time you added more weight. That won't tell us anything."
d
William is trying to calculate the price of his groceries in his head. He has four apples for 35¢ each, five potatoes for 15¢ each, and three cake mixes for $2.25 each. He begins by thinking to himself, "Let's see, 4 times 35¢ is what? Two times 35¢ is 70¢, and then 2 times 70¢ is $1.40. And then what do I do next? Oh, yes, I need to know what 5 times 15 equals. I can't remember, but let's see if I can figure it out...." From the perspective of cognitive psychology, William may have trouble solving the problem because: a. he is using an inappropriate heuristic. b. he is encoding the problem incorrectly. c. he is demonstrating a counterproductive mental set with regard to his use of multiplication facts. d. his working memory capacity may be insufficient to hold and process all the information.
