Chapter 1
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Between 1925 and 1960, American psychology was dominated by
a. behaviorism
b. cognitive psychology
c. applied research
d. introspection
2. The mind processes information like a computer,” would be a statement most
likely to be made by a
a. structuralist
b. cognitive psychologist
c. phenomenologist
d. behaviorist
3. Learning is affected by
a. students’ knowledge of their cognitive processes in the learning process
b. how meaningful the information is to the student
c. selective attention and active information to the student
d. all of the above
4. A cognitively-oriented teacher most likely would emphasize
a. learning factual information
b. improving classroom behavior
c. developing thinking
d. increasing students’ sensitivity to others
5. The major dimension on which most cognitive theories differ from behavioral
theories
is that cognitive theories emphasize
a. external causes of actions
b. observable behavior
c. meaning
d. instructional objectives
6. A cognitively-oriented history teacher likely would be most pleased by her
students
a. learning a large number of names and dates of the early 20th century
b. generating several hypotheses about why the Spanish Civil War occurred
c. memorizing a speech given by Thomas Jefferson
d. reproducing the 1939 borders on a blank map of Europe
7. The cognitive view of teaching portrays students as
a. active processors of information
b. passive learners
c. trial and error learners
d. dependent on the teacher for new information to process
8. According to cognitive theory, learning occurs because of
a. associations between stimuli and responses
b. random processes
c. strategic, intentional processes on the part of the learner
d. the learner’s desire to learn
9. According to cognitive learning theory, the learner is seen as
a. passive and reactive to the environment
b. active but not reactive to the environment
c. passive but mastering the environment
d. active and also reactive to the environment
10. Which of the following schools of thought would be most likely to agree with
the statement: “The concept of ‘mind’ is irrelevant to psychology?”
a. functionalism
b. behaviorism
c. gestalt psychology
d. cognitive psychology
11. A major complaint that behaviorists make against cognitive psychologists is
that cognitive psychologists
a. refer to the mind as a “blank slate”
b. do not possess a “unified theory” of learning
c. generalize from animal behavior to human behavior
d. constantly refer to unobservable mental processes that may not exist
12. Cognitive psychologists are most concerned with the role of prior ___?___ in
learning.
a. activity
b. reinforcement
c. knowledge
d. socialization
13. Which of the following statements is most consistent with cognitive
psychology?
a. learning is independent of environmental consequences
b. a learning event means the same thing to everyone
c. academic skills are unaffected by feedback
d. the same event means different things to different people
14. Which of the following is NOT a fundamental assumption of the information
processing model?
a. incoming information must be elaborated to be remembered
b. there is one general type of knowledge in long term memory
c. individuals use metacognitive knowledge to help them regulate their learning
d. the capacity of our sensory and short term memory stores are quite limited
15. Behaviorism places the most emphasis on
a. external contingencies
b. schemata
c. internal thought processes
d. human consciousness
16. Many changes in the information processing model over the past 40 years
have been directed toward accommodating empirical evidence in support of
___?___ processes that were excluded from early versions of the model
a. data-driven
b. conceptually-driven
c. automatic
d. perceptual
17. The person who championed the view that we are born with "innate cognitive
machinery" that constrains language development is
a. B. F. Skinner
b. Noam Chomsky
c. George Miller
d. Endel Tulving
18. An elementary teacher who views learning from a cognitive perspective
would be most
likely to include which of the following activities in her classroom?
a. repeated practice of math facts until they are automatic
b. choral reading of passages from texts and novels
c. discussing students’ ideas about a character’s motives in a novel
d. memorizing weekly spelling lists and quizzing students over them
19. Compared to behavioral psychology, cognitive psychology places more
emphasis on
a. rote learning
b. mental processes
c. memorization
d. the environment
20. Which of the following teaching practices best reflects a cognitive approach?
a. stating instructional objectives derived through task analysis
b. giving positive reinforcement for correct responses
c. taking students through small, carefully programmed steps
d. helping students learn to find and organize information
21. Which of the following would most likely be the focus of a cognitively-oriented
assessment?
a. reading rate
b. critical thinking ability
c. recall of factual information
d. performance of specific behaviors
Short Answer Questions (Choose any two to answer)
1. Describe two major differences between behavioral and cognitive views of
learning.
2. Outline at least three ways in which a cognitive-oriented teacher would be
likely to approach teaching and learning differently than a behaviorally-oriented
teacher.
3. How does a cognitive view of learning affect the kinds of goals that an
educator might seek?
4. In your view, what are some of the major reasons why cognitive views of
learning have largely replaced behavioral ones in American psychology?
5. Chapter 1 stresses several major themes relating cognitive psychology to
education. State two (2) of these and, for each, describe how the theme is
important to learning
and teaching.
6. Researchers relying on associationist theory have used simple materials (e.g.,
nonsense syllables) in highly controlled laboratory settings to study learning.
Their goal has been to discover elementary laws of learning that can be applied
to complex, real-life settings. What is gained and what is lost in using this kind of
approach to study learning?
7. Describe how cognitive-oriented assessments are likely to be different than a
behaviorally-oriented one. How would those differences in assessment
approaches likely affect teaching and learning?
1. Describe two major differences between behavioral and cognitive views of
learning.
Behavioral theories suggest that learning results from experiences in life while
cognitive theories of learning suggest that learning is based upon mental processes.
Behavioral theories proposed human action could be controlled through manipulation of
stimuli and patterns of reinforcement. Cognitive theory is based upon the idea that
learning comes as a result of processes related to experience, perception, memory and
verbal thinking. It also believes that learning takes place in the mind, not in observable
behavior.
2. Outline at least three ways in which a cognitive-oriented teacher would be
likely to approach teaching and learning differently than a behaviorally-oriented
teacher.
A teacher using behaviorally-oriented would have written behavioral objectives
for academics and any behavior concern could be remediated with either more rewards or
more punishments. This kind of teacher believes all learning can be broken down into
steps, but what about the student(s) who need extra steps or different steps. The
behavioral perspective thinks that if they can just get him or her to do something then
they will be a model student, but it is not possible to shape and mold every student into a
perfect student. A cognitive-oriented teacher would find out why and how they came up
with their answer or their decision to act a particular way. A cognitive-oriented teacher
believes that students process learning in many different ways. A teacher would try to
determine the thought process used by the student and either use that to help guide or
give the student a different method for learning. The teacher would ask questions such as
“what were you thinking or picturing when you decided to act that way?” or “why do you
think you saw it that way.” I think a teacher’s time is better spent getting to know how
each individual student is thinking and helping students learn to solve their problems.