Deck 7: Cognitive Development: Cognitive Processes

Question 1

When 3-year-old Marcus first tries riding a tricycle, he pedals it slowly and awkwardly, and he has trouble steering it where he wants it to go. Over time he becomes increasingly proficient, and eventually he can ride a tricycle with little conscious effort. Marcus's progress illustrates the role of _______ in development.

A) canalization
B) organization
C) automatization
D) executive processes

Answer 1

C

Question 2

From the perspective of contemporary developmental theorists, a script can best be described as:

A) A particular way of talking oneself through a difficult situation
B) Knowledge about the typical sequence of events in an activity
C) The strategy that a teacher tells students to use to remember classroom material
D) The things (e.g., "small talk") that someone typically says when initiating a conversation with someone else

Answer 2

B

Question 3

When children practice basic skills over and over again, they can eventually perform them quickly and with little thought or effort. An advantage of such automatization is that the skills:

A) Require less working memory capacity
B) Enable children to bypass working memory
C) Enable children to bypass the sensory register
D) Make the use of long-term memory unnecessary for simple tasks

Answer 3

A

Question 4

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 information processing system did the information get?

A) It reached the sensory register.
B) It reached working memory.
C) It reached long-term memory.
D) It never got into the memory system at all.

Question 5

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 the concept of schema, how could we explain Wendy's error?

A) Wendy has a schema for shells but does not have one for beaches.
B) Wendy has a schema for beaches but does not have one for shells.
C) Wendy's schema of how a typical beach looks includes shells.
D) Wendy's schemas of beaches and shells are interfering with each other.

Question 6

Only one of the following statements is consistent with what we know about the development of attention and its role in children's learning. Which one?

A) Children become increasingly distractible during the elementary school years.
B) Children are most likely to pay attention to familiar rather than unfamiliar objects.
C) Children show an increasing tendency to learn only the things they actually intend to learn.
D) Distractibility decreases during the elementary school years but increases briefly at puberty.

Question 7

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) Arnie wonders what the men look like.
B) Bob is guessing that the men probably have evil motives.
C) Colin assumes that the men probably looked at a menu before ordering.
D) Devon thinks that the men should be more careful about their cholesterol intake.

Question 8

It is difficult for children to think about too many things all at the same time-a fact that reflects:

A) The existence of a sensory register
B) The limited capacity of working memory
C) The integrative nature of long-term memory
D) The constructive nature of long-term memory

Question 9

Which one of the following examples best illustrates involvement of a central executive in information processing?

A) Adam absentmindedly cracks his knuckles every minute or two.
B) Brigette thinks about how she can best prepare for a history test.
C) Claudia has trouble keeping her mind on her classwork.
D) David is frightened the first time he hears the loud noises at a fireworks display.

Question 10

A staff member at a child care center says to you, "The children at our center range in age from 6 weeks old to 5 years old. I often wonder when their visual perception abilities become fully developed." You can most accurately respond by saying:

A) "They can see as well as you can within 24 hours after birth."
B) "Their visual acuity improves dramatically within the first two months and is as good as that of an adult by about eight weeks of age."
C) "Curiously, their eyesight is quite good at about six weeks but then temporarily deteriorates over the next few months as the brain undergoes reorganization."
D) "Visual perception isn't truly adultlike until age 3 or 4, when the visual area of the cortex matures to an adultlike form."

Question 11

Which one of the following situations reflects the typical duration of working memory?

A) Arnie remembers his locker combination through the entire school year. By the end of summer vacation, however, he has forgotten it.
B) At noon, Barnie makes a mental list of the five homework assignments he needs to complete that night. At 3:00 he checks himself and realizes that he still remembers all five. However, by 7:00 p.m. he cannot recall two of the five assignments.
C) Carol remembers most of the information that she has been learning about World War II in class this week, but she remembers very little of what she learned about World War I two weeks ago.
D) Darrell looks up the correct spelling of the word fossil, repeats the letters once, and closes the dictionary. But by the time he finds a piece of paper on which to write the word, he has forgotten how to spell it.

Question 12

Which one of the following best illustrates the phenomenon of infantile amnesia as developmental theorists typically use the term?

A) Three-week-old Ronald doesn't yet recognize the sound of his mother's voice.
B) Five-month-old Quincy seems surprised each time he wakes up and sees the mobile hanging over his crib, even though the mobile has been there for several
Weeks.
C) Three-year-old Sasha often forgets to wash her hands after using the restroom.
D) Ten-year-old Paulette can't remember the party her parents had for her on her second birthday.

Question 13

An information processing perspective of development portrays cognitive development as:

A) Gradually improving cognitive abilities
B) A series of five distinctly different stages of development
C) Being due primarily to explicit instruction about how to think
D) Something that is influenced largely by genetically controlled changes in the brain

Question 14

Which one of the following best reflects the use of the sensory register component of the human information processing system?

A) Abe can remember a melody for several hours, even though he doesn't remember the words.
B) Bill can remember something he heard for a second or two even though he wasn't paying attention.
C) Carrie can remember the name of another girl just long enough to introduce her to someone else.
D) Danika understands the concept of gravity because she can relate it to her own experiences.

Question 15

As three-month-old Isabella lies in a comfortable infant seat, a researcher shows her a variety of pictures on a video screen. If Isabella is typical of children her age, which one of the following pictures is apt to hold her attention the longest?

A) A fuzzy kitten
B) A smiling face
C) A bowl of fruit
D) A car with horizontal racing stripes

Question 16

Mr. Wagner stands in front of the class explaining the process of photosynthesis. Ellen is sitting in the front row, but her mind is on the fight she had with her best friend just before class. Based on this information, how far in Ellen's information processing system did Mr. Wagner's lecture get?

A) It reached the sensory register.
B) It reached working memory.
C) It reached long-term memory.
D) It never got into the system at all.

Question 17

Twelve-month-old Claude has just crawled to the edge of a deep, empty swimming pool. If Claude is like most children his age, he will:

A) Stop crawling forward, and possibly move away from the edge
B) Find the sharp dropout quite fascinating and lean forward to look down
C) Continue crawling because his perceptual abilities don't allow him to detect the dropout
D) Continue crawling because, although he can perceive the drop-off, he hasn't yet developed a fear of heights

Question 18

Information processing theorists often emphasize the importance of attention in the learning process. Why is attention so important?

A) It gets information into the sensory register.
B) It moves information from working memory into long-term memory.
C) It moves information from the sensory register into long-term memory.
D) It moves information from the sensory register into working memory.

Question 19

Randy knows more as a tenth grader than he did as a first grader. One result of this increased knowledge base is that Randy:

A) Is more easily distracted
B) Rehearses information more slowly
C) Can more easily understand new information
D) Is more likely to get the different things he knows confused with one another

Question 20

Which one of the following students is most likely to have trouble learning in a noisy classroom?

A) a first grader
B) a third grader
C) a sixth grader
D) a tenth grader

Question 21

Which learning strategy are we most likely to see second graders use?

A) Rehearsing what they want to remember
B) Intentionally elaborating on new material
C) Writing down what they want to remember
D) Intentionally organizing ideas into categories

Question 22

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 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) Dolly is preparing to take the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), so she checks out an SAT preparation book from the local library and reads it from cover to cover.

Question 23

As he talks, 6-year-old William uses his hands a lot, showing dimensions of certain objects, depicting particular movements, and so on. How should a teacher who is working with William respond to his gestures?

A) The teacher should discourage them, as they require a lot of working memory capacity and may interfere with William's logical reasoning capabilities.
B) The teacher should watch William's gestures closely, as they may reveal newly emerging reasoning abilities.
C) The teacher should consult with a specialist, as "talking" with one's hands is often a sign of delayed cognitive development.
D) The teacher should provide extra help with language development, with the hopes that the gestures will eventually decrease in frequency.

Question 24

How do young children's estimates of their memory capacity relate to reality?

A) They are usually fairly accurate in their estimates of how much they can recall.
B) They usually underestimate how much they can remember.
C) They usually overestimate how much they can remember.
D) They don't even try to guess how much they can recall.

Question 25

Mr. Martinez wants his first-grade students to be able to automatize their ability to recognize common words when they read. Which one of the following techniques will best help his students achieve that goal?

A) Give them lots of practice reading the words.
B) Tell them how important it is for them to know the words.
C) Explain how some of the letters in the words are "silent."
D) Explain how the letters of the words are related to their pronunciation.

Question 26

Considering developmental trends in learning strategies, choose the statement that best characterizes how high school students are apt to approach school learning tasks.

A) Even at the high school level, most students do little if anything to help them learn and remember school subject matter.
B) High school students rely largely on comprehension monitoring to learn visual information; they are more apt to use rehearsal for auditory information.
C) Some high school students intentionally organize and elaborate on class material; others rely largely on rehearsal.
D) Organization and elaboration decrease over the high school years, in large part because such storage processes are less necessary as the brain matures to its adultlike form.

Question 27

Other things being equal, which one of the following four boys is likely to learn and remember the most by reading a book about spiders?

A) Eight-year-old Albert, who knows a lot more about spiders than the other boys do
B) Eight-year-old Bernard, for whom the book is slightly above his zone of proximal development
C) Ten-year-old Colt, who performs well on a task involving conservation of weight
D) Ten-year-old Darren, who shows some understanding of simple proportions

Question 28

Which one of the following statements does NOT accurately reflect research findings about cultural diversity in metacognition?

A) In Asian countries, parents and teachers discourage rote memorization as a learning strategy.
B) In China, people believe that learning enables an individual to contribute in significant ways to the betterment of society.
C) African children are better at remembering stories that they hear than American children.
D) In the United States, people believe that the goal of learning is to understand the world and acquire new skills and abilities.

Question 29

When 5-year-old Clinton looks at the road map his parents are using to plan a trip, he laughs and exclaims, "That's silly. Our car can't fit on roads that small!" Which one of the following best explains Clinton's statement?

A) Clinton is only beginning to develop proportional reasoning.
B) Clinton doesn't yet fully appreciate the symbolic nature of maps.
C) Clinton is the victim of infantile amnesia, in that he can't remember other road maps he's previously seen.
D) Clinton's working memory capacity is insufficient to enable him to look at all parts of the map simultaneously.

Question 30

Which form of problem solving are you likely to see in a one-year-old?

A) Removing a barrier to get to a desired toy
B) Using a pointed object to break a cookie into pieces
C) Moving wooden blocks in systematic, repetitive ways as a precursor to counting
D) Sorting a group of objects according to both size and color

Question 31

Tyler learns that Christopher Columbus's first voyage across the Atlantic was financed by Queen Isabella of Spain. He thinks to himself, "She probably thought she would make a profit on her investment." By considering the queen's motives, Tyler is demonstrating which one of the following processes?

A) rehearsal
B) elaboration
C) organization
D) comprehension monitoring

Question 32

Three of the following students are showing signs of self-regulated learning. Which student does not show any evidence of self-regulated learning?

A) As Adam studies his German vocabulary words, he occasionally stops to check himself to see which words he needs to study further.
B) Blake knows that for purposes of college admission, his performance in math class is more important than his performance in drama class, so he works harder in the first class than in the second.
C) Craig beams with pleasure when his teacher praises his English essay, because her opinion of his work is very important to him.
D) Drew thinks to himself, "Tonight I'll skim the reading assignment in history just to get a general idea of what the chapter's all about. Tomorrow I'll read it again in more depth."

Question 33

Marco is taking an elective class on world religions. As he studies, he thinks about how certain tenets of Islam are in some ways similar to his own Christian beliefs. What learning strategy is Marco using?

A) comprehension monitoring
B) rehearsal
C) intersubjectivity
D) elaboration

Question 34

After looking up the word rhinoceros in the dictionary, Miguel repeats the letters over and over to himself to help him remember them. Which one of the following strategies does Miguel's behavior illustrate?

A) rehearsal
B) elaboration
C) organization
D) comprehension monitoring

Question 35

When 3-year-old Julia comes home from her first day at preschool, her father asks her, "What's your teacher's name?" Julia answers by saying, "I forget." Yet when Dad drops Julia off at preschool the following morning, the teacher apologizes to both of them: "How silly of me! Yesterday when you came to school, Julia, I didn't tell you my name. It's Miss Martin." Obviously, of course, Julia couldn't "forget" something she never knew. How can we best explain her response to her father's question?

A) Young children have little awareness of the nature of their own thinking.
B) Young children often lie to cover up self-perceived weaknesses in their memories.
C) Young children typically assume they know everything there is to know.
D) Young children often confuse something they've learned in one situation with something they've learned in another, very different situation.

Question 36

Maria is trying to remember all of the objects in her locker at school. "Let me think . . . pens, pencils, markers . . . um, math book, science book, notebooks . . . my coat, hat, and gloves . . . I can't remember any more." What learning strategy does Maria's response illustrate?

A) rehearsal
B) elaboration
C) organization
D) comprehension monitoring

Question 37

Considering developmental trends in learning strategies, choose the statement that best characterizes how kindergartners are apt to approach school learning tasks.

A) They construct vivid visual and auditory images of what they see and hear in the classroom.
B) They make mental lists of things to remember, but with little follow-through in studying the lists.
C) They continually put things into categories to help them remember those things.
D) They make few if any intentional efforts to learn and remember something.

Question 38

Which one of the following statements best describes children's acquisition of new learning and problem-solving strategies?

A) When children first acquire a new strategy, they use it infrequently and sometimes ineffectively.
B) When children acquire a new strategy, they almost immediately abandon their earlier, less mature strategies.
C) Children's new strategies are usually simple modifications of previous strategies.
D) Children acquire new, more effective strategies only when adults encourage them to do so.

Question 39

The textbook recommends a number of strategies for capturing and maintaining children's attention on important tasks and activities. Which one of the following is not consistent with the textbook's recommendations for increasing attention?

A) Get children physically involved in lessons.
B) Teach important skills within the context of interesting topics.
C) Regularly intersperse quiet activities with more physically active ones.
D) Regularly introduce distractions into the environment so that children grow accustomed to them.

Question 40

Alicia (who is African American), Amy (who is Japanese American), and Ann (whose Jewish grandparents immigrated from Poland) are in the same tenth-grade history class. They are studying together for a test on World War II. The girls share the opinion that racism was a widespread problem during the war, but they disagree about which actions were most racist in nature. Which one of the following explanations of their differences is most consistent with contemporary theories of cognitive development?

A) After puberty, many youngsters (especially girls) tend to enjoy a good argument.
B) At their age, they probably don't yet have a good understanding of such an abstract concept as racism.
C) Their differing heritages lead them to bring different knowledge bases to their interpretations of history.
D) Children whose parents or grandparents immigrated from one country to another tend to have exceptionally strong opinions about many issues.

Question 41

Three of the following should help youngsters acquire more effective learning and study strategies. Which one is least likely to do so?

A) Have them work in pairs to ask one another thought-provoking questions about a topic.
B) Express confidence that with time and effective strategies, they can learn everything there is to know about a topic.
C) Have them experiment with different methods of trying to remember information and then reflect on each method's effectiveness.
D) Give them a general structure to guide their early note-taking efforts.

Question 42

Imagine you are a high school principal who wants students to develop effective study strategies before they graduate. 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 teachers incorporate study skills training into the specific academic courses they teach.
C) Have a one-semester study skills course that all students take in their first year of high school.
D) Have a one-semester study skills course that all students take in their final year of high school.

Question 43

Which one of the following statements best describes a theory theory view of cognitive development?

A) Children form general belief systems about how the world operates.
B) The ways in which children organize and integrate their experiences usually have little relevance to physical reality.
C) In the early years, children develop concrete understandings of events; these understandings become increasingly abstract as they reach adolescence.
D) Beginning at around age 3, children form hypotheses about the nature of the world and test those hypotheses in much the same way that a scientist would.

Question 44

Adults often engage young children in discussions about past events. Which one of the following is least likely to result from such discussions?

A) Children learn to interpret events in culturally relevant ways.
B) Children are likely to remember experiences which they have discussed.
C) Children become increasingly able to recall verbatim what the adults have said about the events.
D) Children develop an autobiographical self.

Question 45

Which one of the following best describes the nature of conceptual change?

A) Developing new categories to classify objects and events
B) Revising one's beliefs after receiving information that contradicts those beliefs
C) Achieving the instructional objectives that a teacher has established for a lesson or unit
D) Acquiring a more sophisticated vocabulary with which to describe the events in one's life

Question 46

Which one of the following statements best describes intersubjectivity?

A) Recognizing that one does not, and never can, know everything there is to know about a topic
B) The point at which a teacher understands the nature of a child's existing knowledge about a topic
C) The point at which a child acquires the same knowledge about a topic that a teacher or other expert has
D) A mutual understanding between two people that each one knows what the other one is seeing, thinking, or feeling

Question 47

Which of the following can teachers do that will be most likely to encourage self-regulated learning?

A) Give children praise for work that is done well.
B) Give children frequent feedback.
C) Give children regular homework assignments.
D) Give children frequent opportunities to set goals.

Question 48

Tammy tells Mr. Brookes that she really wants to do well in his government class, but she doesn't seem to study the right things and so always get low scores on quizzes and tests. Before the next test, the two of them meet after school and create a list of questions she should try to answer as she reads and studies. This situation can best be described as:

A) Equilibration
B) A clinical method
C) Social referencing
D) Co-regulated learning

Question 49

Which one of the following examples illustrates conceptual change?

A) As a Boy Scout, Andy has learned how to cook a wide variety of foods over an open fire.
B) Brad misinterprets the scientific explanation of fire to fit what he believes: that fire is an object with substance and weight.
C) Charlotte used to think that fire was an actual substance, but now she knows it's a chemical change.
D) Danielle wasn't aware of how much damage fire could really do until the house next door burned down.

Question 50

Children's misconceptions about the world may come from a variety of sources. Which one of the following is not a likely source that theorists have identified?

A) Textbooks and other media sometimes provide misinformation.
B) Children willingly accept the stories that younger children make up.
C) Children form their own ideas based on how the world appears to be.
D) Common expressions in language (e.g., the sun "sets" in the west) sometimes misrepresent reality.

Question 51

Three of the following teachers are using strategies that should promote self- regulated learning. Which teacher, while almost certainly helping students learn more effectively, is probably not promoting self-regulated learning?

A) Mr. Isaacs gives his students several criteria they can use to evaluate their own research papers.
B) Mr. Jankowski has his students set specific, individually chosen goals they should try to accomplish as they study.
C) Ms. Lin gives her students a list of questions they should try to answer as they read an assigned textbook chapter at home.
D) Ms. Henry recruits several parents to provide one-on-one tutoring for students who are having difficulty in a particular subject.

Question 52

Which one of the following statements best describes a nativist perspective of child development?

A) Children are naturally disposed to think about their environment in particular ways; in a sense, some basic knowledge about the world is "pre-wired."
B) Children actively construct their own view of the world from their experiences with the environment.
C) Initially, children unconsciously develop a rather complex and confused view of the world, but this view becomes simpler and more straightforward as time goes on.
D) Children repeatedly parrot their parents' and teachers' beliefs, eventually adopting these beliefs as their own "knowledge."

Question 53

Epistemic beliefs can best be described as youngsters' views about:

A) What instructional techniques are most likely to help them learn classroom material
B) How long they are likely to remember the things they learn in school
C) Which careers are most suitable for their abilities and talents
D) What knowledge is and how it is acquired

Question 54

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 a recommended strategy for changing misconceptions?

A) Ms. Andersen gives corrective feedback when students make statements that reflect misconceptions.
B) Mr. Bissette presents a situation that students cannot adequately explain using their current beliefs about the topic.
C) Mr. Caro shows students how the true explanation of something is different from, and more plausible than, their existing beliefs.
D) Ms. Darren reminds her students that she will be testing them on the material they are studying.

Question 55

A high school student who studies primarily by memorizing textbook definitions word for word is most likely to have which one of the following epistemic beliefs?

A) Knowledge is a collection of discrete facts.
B) Some things about the world may ultimately be unknowable.
C) Knowledge doesn't just come from experts, it can also be self-constructed.
D) Experts' understanding of a topic continues to change as new research results come in.

Question 56

Three of the following statements about epistemic beliefs are true. Which one is false?

A) Children's beliefs about the nature of knowledge influence how they study.
B) Children with more advanced epistemic beliefs are more likely to struggle with academic subject matter.
C) As students progress through the grade levels they discover that learning involves acquiring a cohesive set of ideas.
D) Young children may be more motivated to learn about a topic when they know that some things are definitely true or false.

Question 57

Mary Adams takes care of several toddlers and preschoolers while their parents work during the day. One warm spring day, she has the children in a fenced-in area behind her home. A large dog comes running up to the fence. As the dog approaches, 2-year-old Todd looks at Mary. When he sees that she appears frightened, he immediately starts to cry. What phenomenon is Todd displaying in this situation?

A) automatization
B) social referencing
C) metacognitive awareness
D) comprehension monitoring

Question 58

Which one of the following pairs of students best illustrates a difference in epistemic beliefs?

A) Irene thinks that doing well in high school is important for getting into a good college, but Isabelle thinks that she can get into college with mediocre grades as long as she has high SAT scores.
B) Julie likes going to school because that's where she sees her friends every day, but Janette likes going to school because of all the new things she learns there.
C) Keith thinks that learning geography means memorizing place names, but Kareem thinks that learning geography means understanding migration and settlement patterns.
D) 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.

Question 59

A third grade teacher gives examples of questions that will encourage his students to elaborate upon existing knowledge. Which of the following terms most closely describes what this teacher is doing?

A) Modeling
B) Encouraging
C) Strategizing
D) Scaffolding

Question 60

Which one of the following examples best illustrates the use of a personally constructed theory as a child learns the concept spider?

A) Julian assumes that spiders must give birth to baby spiders, just as people give birth to baby people.
B) Ian learns that spiders have eight legs, whereas insects have only six.
C) Rudy learns that spiders, along with scorpions and ticks, are members of the arachnid class.
D) Duc remembers what happened when his cousin was bitten by a black widow spider.

Question 61

The father of 6-year-old Meghan is puzzled about why Meghan stubbornly insists that people in Australia need glue on their shoes to hold them to the earth. Which one of the following might best help this father understand Meghan's persistent misconception?

A) Nativism
B) Theory theory
C) Sociocultural theory
D) Information processing theory

Question 62

Which one of the following is not a recommended strategy to help those children who may have information processing difficulties?

A) Provide extra scaffolding.
B) Teach social skills.
C) Discourage the use of self-talk.
D) Minimize distractive stimuli.

Question 63

Developmental Concepts in Early Childhood: Like virtually all children her age, Andrea has already constructed a theory about her physical world. Because the teacher frequently uses a globe to show students different geographical locations, Andrea's theory includes the idea that the Earth is a sphere. In her theory, however, gravity does not pull objects toward the center of the Earth, but instead pulls them "downward" toward the South Pole or into the open space "beneath" it.

Question 64

The textbook describes a number of trends in the development of information processing skills. Describe at least four ways in which twelfth graders are apt to differ from sixth graders in their information processing strategies and capabilities.

Question 65

Jacob is an elementary school student with a learning disability that interferes with his ability to read. His motor skills are poor, and he has trouble staying on task. Based on the experience of most children with learning disabilities, what might you expect to happen when Jacob reaches high school?

A) He will continue to exhibit poor motor skills, and this will prevent him from playing sports and participating in physical education.
B) He will become discouraged because his teachers expect him to be more independent and will be at risk of dropping out of school.
C) His reading skills will improve as a result of early intervention, but his attention span will still be as short as it was when he was in elementary school.
D) He will improve dramatically in all areas and probably will not require specialized instruction by the time he reaches high school.

Question 66

Fourteen-year-old Trevor spends several hours each night reading and studying his textbooks, yet he rarely earns a grade above D on quizzes that assess what he has learned. Which one of the following is apt to be most useful in your efforts to help Trevor study more effectively?

A) Theory theory
B) Social constructivism
C) Information processing theory
D) Piaget's views about concrete operational thinking

Question 67

The textbook describes a number of trends in the development of information processing skills. Describe at least four ways in which sixth-grade children differ from kindergarten children in their information processing strategies and capabilities.

Question 68

Research indicates that children's misconceptions about a topic are often quite resistant to change, yet sometimes misconceptions must change if children are to acquire an accurate understanding of the world around them.
a. Describe three different reasons why children often acquire misconceptions about the world.
b. Describe at least three teaching strategies that should help students change their misconceptions about the world.
Developmental Trends Table
The table below describes behaviors that youngsters at five different age levels exhibit. For each of these behaviors, the table identifies one or more relevant cognitive or metacognitive processes, offers an implication for working with children of that age group, or both. Apply what you've learned about children's cognitive processes to fill in the empty cells in the table.
Identifying Children's Cognitive Processes

Question 69

Three of the following children have been identified as having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Which one is least likely to have ADHD?

A) Eva daydreams in class a lot. She tends to stare at books without reading them, and her teacher often needs to repeat the same instructions several times.
B) Martin rarely stays in his seat for more than ten minutes, and his hands are always fidgeting with something. He needs frequent reminders to get back on task, and transitions are challenging for him.
C) Caroline turns her head toward every sound she hears. The sound of a pencil dropping catches her attention as easily as a fire alarm. Often she is so engrossed in listening to happenings in the hall or across the room that she does not hear someone speaking directly to her.
D) Ben's favorite times of day are recess and gym because he enjoys physical activity. It's hard for him to sit still on rainy afternoons when he hasn't had a chance to burn off some energy, but he does get his assignments done.

Question 70

Which of the following is an implication for teachers who work with high school students to help them to develop their epistemic beliefs?

A) Communicate that knowledge of a topic involves understanding how ideas are interrelated.
B) Discuss how knowledge is made of discrete facts.
C) Encourage the use of flash cards.
D) Communicate the belief that all knowledge about a topic can be attained with enough effort and study.

Question 71

Which one of the following children is most likely to be classified as having a learning disability?

A) Marcus, who has trouble learning abstract information and cannot easily adapt to new situations
B) George, who gets average scores on intelligence tests but has difficulty with certain kinds of memory tasks and is well below average in reading and writing
C) Justine, who performs well on academic tasks but has a poor self-image and has difficulty behaving appropriately in the classroom
D) Melissa, who has no problem with reading and writing but refuses to answer questions in class

Question 72

If you were to suggest one of the most effective ways for teachers to help their students learn new information more effectively, which of the following would be the most effective strategy?

A) Teach information in a pre-determined sequence.
B) Relate new information to what the students already know.
C) Provide plenty of review for new information.
D) Teach new information only when existing information has been mastered.

Question 73

Mr. Stevens has taught his first grade students about how caterpillars change into butterflies. One of his students, Brittany, continues to believe that butterflies are born like that. Caterpillars do not have wings. They crawl. Butterflies have wings. They fly. Which of the following is not likely to change Brittany's mind about caterpillars changing into butterflies?

A) A video that shows the changes from caterpillar to butterfly
B) Asking her family to tell her that a caterpillar does change into a butterfly
C) Bringing a caterpillar into the classroom to watch it change
D) Asking her to talk about her beliefs about caterpillars and butterflies

Question 74

Three of the following examples illustrate specific strategies that can be effective in helping children with information processing difficulties succeed at school. Which strategy is least likely to be effective with these children?

A) Josie's teacher gives her special memory tricks to help her remember how to spell certain words (e.g., "The principal is my pal").
B) Nattie's teacher looks at the errors Nattie makes when she solves long division problems for clues about what Nattie might be doing incorrectly.
C) Russell's teacher suggests that he watch his favorite television program while he studies for tomorrow's spelling test.
D) Vern's teacher often asks him to do classroom tasks and errands that can help him release pent-up energy.

Question 75

Developmental Concepts in Late Adolescence: Like many high school students, John has depended largely on rehearsal to study for his test. Any comprehension monitoring probably involved testing himself on facts and definitions rather than checking to see whether he could apply the material to new situations. Quite possibly John's epistemological beliefs about school subject matter include the idea that "knowing" something simply means being able to recite specific facts.

Question 76

Implications in Middle Childhood: When children have difficulty paying attention, minimize distractions and give them frequent opportunities to release pent-up energy. Use high-interest, hands-on activities to keep them mentally engaged in learning classroom subject matter.

Question 77

At what age does intersubjectivity become more complex and take the form of joint attention?

A) 2-3 months
B) 4-5 months
C) 7-8 months
D) 9-10 months

Question 78

Ms. Dante notices that one of her students is not submitting her homework on time. This has been happening on a consistent basis. Which one of the following would be most likely to be helpful for Ms. Dante to use to help her student to submit the work in a timely manner?

A) Make arrangements for afterschool tutoring.
B) Talk with her student to find the reason for the late submissions.
C) Give her student more time to complete the assignments.
D) Provide more structure for future assignments.

Question 79

Imagine that you are a seventh-grade English teacher. Your class has been learning how to develop a five?paragraph essay. Last week your students wrote essays about littering in long hand. Today you want them to compose essays about raccoons using a word processing program in the computer lab. As you look around the room you see that several students are having difficulty doing this assignment. Use an information processing perspective to identify at least three possible sources of difficulty that the students may be having.