If we look at cognitive development from Piaget's perspective, we would expect a child in the concrete operations stage to have the greatest difficulty with which one of the following questions?
a. How are an apple and a blueberry alike?
b. If you have 8 Macintosh apples and 2 Golden Delicious apples, then do you have more Macintoshes or more apples?
c. An apple pie is cut into 4 pieces. A blueberry pie of the same size is cut into 12 pieces. How many pieces of blueberry pie do you need to have the same amount as 3 pieces of the apple pie?
d. If we have one row of blueberries spread like so: o o o o o o
and another row of blueberries spread like so: o o o o o o
then does one row have more blueberries than the other?
Ques. 2Which one of the following is the best example of problem-based learning?
a. Learning the logic behind certain problem-solving procedures in math
b. Learning history by reading detective novels set in certain historical eras
c. Devising a way to move a large, heavy object using principles of physics
d. Solving a series of mathematical word problems that gradually progress in difficulty
Ques. 3After explaining what sines and cosines are, a high school math teacher shows students how they might use these concepts in constructing a large building. Which one of the following principles does this scenario best illustrate?
a. Over time, self-talk gradually evolves into inner speech.
b. Thought and language become increasingly interdependent with age.
c. Acquiring the cognitive tools of one's culture enables youngsters to live and work more effectively.
d. Children function more effectively when they work at their actual (rather than potential) developmental levels.
Ques. 4Which one of the following reflects class inclusion as Piaget described it?
a. Getting cows and horses confused
b. Realizing that things that are cars are also vehicles
c. Identifying a shape as a square one day but as a triangle the next
d. Understanding that some behaviors that are perfectly acceptable at home are unacceptable at school
Ques. 5Piaget's ideas were largely ignored by American psychologists until the 1960s. Three of the following are probable reasons why this was so. Which one is not a likely reason?
a. Piaget studied children rather than nonhuman species.
b. Piaget's ideas were incompatible with behaviorist theory.
c. Most of Piaget's writings were in French.
d. Piaget used research methods that were unconventional in the eyes of American psychologists.
Ques. 6Roger is shown two piles of sand and says that each pile has the same amount. However, when one pile is flattened with a shovel, he now claims emphatically, The flat pile has less sand. Based on this information, Roger is probably in Piaget's _______ stage of development.
a. preoperational
b. concrete operations
c. formal operations
d. sensorimotor
Ques. 7Three of the following are potential disadvantages of a cooperative learning activity. Which one has not been identified as a disadvantage?
a. Students generally have lower self-efficacy when they study with peers rather than alone.
b. Students may learn incorrect information from other group members.
c. Students who do more work may harbor negative feelings about students who do less work.
d. Students may be more interested in completing the task quickly than in helping one another learn.
Ques. 8David is trying to calculate the total cost of the groceries in his grocery cart. 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, four times 35 is what? Two times 35 is 70, and then two 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 an information processing perspective, David may have difficulty solving the problem because:
a. He is using an inappropriate heuristic.
b. His working memory capacity may be insufficient to hold and process all the information.
c. He is encoding the problem incorrectly.
d. He is demonstrating functional fixedness with regard to his knowledge of multiplication facts.
Ques. 9Research indicates that people are more likely to be successful problem solvers in a given subject area when they:
a. pay considerable attention to details
b. know the subject matter very well
c. have had extensive training in logical thinking
d. have already acquired problem-solving expertise in a very different subject area
Ques. 10When Daneesha encounters the problem If apples are 35 each, how much will 7 apples cost? she thinks, Many items at the same price . . . hmm, this kind of situation usually calls for multiplication. Daneesha's reasoning reflects the use of:
a. incubation
b. inert knowledge
c. a problem schema
d. meansends analysis
Ques. 11Which one of the following examples most clearly illustrates the effect of functional fixedness on problem solving?
a. Arnie is trying to solve a physics problem on a classroom test. He is so anxious that he can't recall the problem-solving strategies he needs.
b. Bradley is looking for something to haul water but doesn't have a bucket. He fails to realize that his plastic wastebasket could easily carry water.
c. Charlie is doing a series of addition problems. He overlooks the subtraction sign on the last problem and so adds when he should subtract.
d. Doug is angry that another boy stole his bicycle. Rather than report the theft to the police, he steals a bicycle from someone else.
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