Deck 17: Cognitive Factors in Motivation

Question 1

Which one of the following illustrates personal interest rather than situational interest?

A) Jennifer is puzzled when a peeled hardboiled egg is suddenly sucked into a bottle after the teacher lights a fire inside the bottle.
B) Trent gets totally wrapped up in the adventure novel he is reading during his free time in class.
C) Riley can't wait to find out what's in the big cardboard box his teacher has brought to school today.
D) Victoria loves ballet and wants to become a ballerina when she grows up.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which one of the following students clearly has a mastery goal rather than a performance goal?

A) Alice is relieved to learn she passed her English composition course.
B) Boris wants the recognition that being a star football player will bring him.
C) Cal doesn't worry about making mistakes as long as he knows he's making progress.
D) Dinah stays away from science courses because she's never done very well in science.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

A learner's expectancy about success in the classroom is influenced by three of the following factors. Which one will probably be least influential?

A) How successful the learner has been in the past
B) How helpful the learner thinks the teacher's instruction will be
C) Whether the learner has set short-term or long-term goals
D) How much effort the learner thinks will be necessary to succeed

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which one of the following statements indicates that the speaker is focused on a performance-avoidance goal?

A) "This is my chance to show all my classmates how smart I am."
B) "Boy, I hope I don't get this problem wrong. If I do, I'll look like an idiot."
C) "I'd really like to become a better math student. I hope the teacher gives me feedback about how I can improve my skills."
D) "I need to do well in my science classes so I can get into a good engineering school."

Question 5

Which one of the following individuals definitely has a mastery goal rather than a performance goal?
A) Andrea is in the pool each day at 6:00

A)m.; she has set her sights on an Olympic goal medal in swimming.
B) Brandon wants to please his parents by doing well in school.
C) Claude studies science so he can understand what makes things "tick."
D) Darlene never asks questions in class; she's afraid they might make her look stupid.

Question 6

Three of the following teaching strategies are likely to promote performance goals. Which one is likely to promote a mastery goal?

A) Encouraging students to strive for perfect scores on their math quizzes
B) Reminding students that colleges look for applicants who have high GPAs
C) Awarding first, second, and third prizes for the three best science fair exhibits
D) Helping students see that they're making progress in their persuasive writing

Question 7

From an expectancies/values perspective, which one of the following boys is most likely to want to learn how to swim?

A) Antonio's parents promise him a new bike if he can learn to swim.
B) Bernie plays for hours on end in the bathtub.
C) Chip's older brother almost drowned last year.
D) Drew is pretty sure he can learn to swim if he tries.

Question 8

Three of the following are typically associated with mastery goals. Which one is associated with performance goals, and especially with performance-avoidance goals?

A) Believing that competent people usually succeed without much effort
B) Believing that errors are an inevitable part of the learning process
C) Engaging in such processes as meaningful learning and elaboration
D) Being satisfied with one's performance if it shows improvement over time

Question 9

If we consider factors that promote interest, three of the following teaching strategies should be beneficial. Which one will not be beneficial?

A) Intersperse boring material with entertaining jokes about your personal life.
B) Assign works of fiction that feature a character with whom students can identify.
C) Make some classroom tasks challenging but accomplishable.
D) Choose a textbook that presents information in a clear, coherent fashion.

Question 10

Which one of these students has a performance-approach goal?

A) Frank finds a homework assignment too easy to waste his time on.
B) Herb frequently asks questions in class in order to understand the information better.
C) Selena decides to enter the school science fair in hopes of impressing her teacher, classmates, and parents.
D) Rita was disappointed by her last test score in math. Realizing that people learn from their mistakes, she decides to study harder for the next test using different study strategies.

Question 11

Identify the student who most clearly has a mastery goal rather than a performance goal.

A) When Abby gets a new assignment, she likes to set it aside for a day or so before she actually begins to work on it.
B) Bonnie is a perfectionist who gets upset when her test grades are anything but A+.
C) When given the choice between taking an easy class or a more challenging one, Cora chooses the challenging one.
D) Dana is easily distracted by the many stimuli competing for her attention in the classroom.

Question 12

Which one of the following exemplifies situational interest rather than personal interest?

A) Adam finds the Guinness Book of World Records on the shelf and is intrigued by the strange people it describes.
B) Blaine can't think of anything he'd rather do than play poker with his friends.
C) Chuck spends every Saturday and Sunday working on the 1951 Chevy in his garage.
D) Dave loves to snorkel and hopes to be a marine biologist when he finishes college.

Question 13

Three of the following characterize students with a performance goal. Which one characterizes students with a mastery goal?

A) Trying to learn something word for word
B) Concluding that you need to work harder when you fail
C) Doing something that you know you will be reinforced for
D) Looking at classmates' performance as an indication of how well you're doing

Question 14

Which one of the following is the best example of a core goal?

A) Wanting to do well in school
B) Wanting to find a date for the senior prom
C) Looking desperately for something to drink after a day working in the hot sun
D) Trying to find misplaced car keys when one is late for an appointment

Question 15

Three of the following statements are accurate descriptions of the effect interest has on learning and performance. Which one is not accurate?

A) Interest promotes meaningful learning of information.
B) Interest promotes performance goals rather than mastery goals.
C) Interest increases the likelihood of conceptual change.
D) Interest increases the likelihood that students will apply what they learn.

Question 16

From an expectancies/values perspective, which one of the following activities are you least likely to value?

A) One that will gain the admiration of your peers
B) One to which you'll have to devote most of your time in order to succeed
C) One that you don't enjoy but is important for career success
D) One that will enable you to obtain desired reinforcement

Question 17

Which one of the following statements best characterizes contemporary motivation theory?

A) It relates motivation to primary and secondary reinforcers.
B) It considers the cognitive factors that underlie motivation.
C) It focuses on the acquired drives that people develop over time.
D) It describes motivation as being largely the result of emotions.

Question 18

Four students in Ms. Bennett's social studies class have to give an oral report on a country of their choosing. Which one of the students exhibits behavior consistent with a mastery goal?

A) When Eldon gives his report on Hungary, he stands straight and speaks clearly because he wants to impress his teacher and fellow students with his knowledge and ability.
B) Francis wants to give a good presentation on the United Arab Emirates because he needs to improve his overall class grade.
C) John does his report on Spain because that is where his family is from. He has enjoyed talking to his grandfather about what it is like to live in Spain.
D) As Holly gives her report on Mongolia, she is very nervous. She is afraid she might make a fool of herself in front of her classmates.

Question 19

Which one of the following teaching strategies best illustrates the concept press for understanding?

A) Mr. Andersen asks students to explain and justify their approach to solving complex problems.
B) Ms. Blumenfeld uses a concrete model of the solar system to explain why we have summer and winter.
C) Mr. Carowsky has students take true-false quizzes on a certain topic until they earn a score of 90% or higher.
D) Ms. dePalma gives an abstract lecture on the concepts of momentum and inertia and then follows it up with several examples of how these concepts can be seen in students' everyday lives.

Question 20

Which one of the following students clearly has a performance goal rather than a mastery goal?

A) Alec is bored by easy assignments.
B) Blanche always does more than her teacher requires.
C) Christina persists when she encounters a difficult math problem.
D) Devon evaluates his own performance based on how his classmates do.

Question 21

Which one of the following students is attributing success or failure on a geology test to an internal source and thinks the cause is unstable and controllable?

A) Jane says she failed the test because it was too difficult.
B) Emily says she did well on the test because she is smart in science.
C) Joe says he did well on the test because he studied hard.
D) Drew says he studied hard, but he failed because he is just not good in geology.

Question 22

Which one of the following teacher statements is most consistent with an entity view of intelligence?

A) "You're one of the brightest students I've ever taught."
B) "If you keep practicing something, you'll get better at it."
C) "The more you know about a topic, the more quickly and easily you can learn new things about it."
D) "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

Question 23

John has just failed a test-in a sense, his test performance has been punished. From the perspective of attributions, is John likely to work harder to pass his next test?

A) Definitely not
B) Absolutely yes
C) Yes, provided that he believes his test performance is the result of something he didn't do but could do next time
D) Yes, provided that his low test score is accompanied by information about strengths and weaknesses about his performance.

Question 24

Roxanne and her teammates consistently lose basketball games by a very close margin. Roxanne believes that their losses are always due to bad calls by the referees. With this information and the typical nature of students' attributions in mind, identify the statement below that is most likely to be an accurate description of Roxanne?

A) She feels guilty about not practicing harder.
B) She feels resentment toward the referees.
C) She has decreasing self-confidence about her ability to play basketball.
D) She intends to ask her coach for suggestions about how to improve her game.

Question 25

Attribution theorists tell us that, in general, when people don't know why they have been successful or unsuccessful at a task, they are apt to:

A) Assume that ability (or lack of it) was the overriding factor
B) Assume that effort (or lack of it) was the overriding factor
C) Seek out possible explanations for their success or failure
D) Forget about their successes and failures very quickly

Question 26

Which one of the following attributions can be classified as internal, stable, and, uncontrollable?

A) Believing that getting the highest test score in class was all a matter of luck
B) Knowing you did poorly on an assignment because you didn't give it your best shot
C) Thinking your teacher is too hard a grader
D) Concluding that you just weren't cut out to be an athlete

Question 27

Which one of the following is the best example of a student attributing success to an internal factor?

A) Nita has just gotten an A on her final exam in world history and is feeling very grateful to the teacher for her good grade.
B) Polly's teacher has just told her that she will be the group leader for her reading group next quarter. Polly is glad her teacher is in a good mood today.
C) Renata has just gotten a good grade on her math test and is glad that her mother got her a math tutor.
D) Sue Ellen has just gotten a good grade on her geography test; she's proud that she did so well and glad that she studied hard.

Question 28

Which one of the following girls is most likely to attribute a low exam grade to an external cause?

A) Anna's teacher encourages her to seek his help if she needs it.
B) Betsy knows that other students in her class all did well on the exam.
C) Carol has gotten low grades on most previous exams.
D) Donna thought she knew the material even though she really didn't.

Question 29

Three of the following are examples of social goals. Which one would not necessarily be considered a social goal?

A) Robert is eager to learn everything he can about terrorists and their personalities.
B) Harry is worried that the homeless in his community may freeze during a bitter cold spell.
C) Jasmine works hard to keep a promise she made to her parents.
D) Mikaela has her hair professionally styled so she'll look nice at the school dance.

Question 30

Shawn has to run the 50-yard dash in physical education. He thinks he has little chance of winning the race but worries about what his friends will think when he loses. Considering research about learners who have an entity view of ability, select the course of action Shawn is most likely to follow.

A) Try to stay right behind the fastest runner.
B) Intentionally run slowly.
C) Run as hard as he can but make excuses about why he lost.
D) Run as hard as he can and convince himself that he won the race even though he didn't.

Question 31

Three of the following behaviors reflect a social goal. Which behavior does not necessarily reflect a social goal?

A) Learning as much as one can about European history
B) Helping a person who has been hurt in an accident
C) Bullying a clumsy and unpopular classmate
D) Seeking a teacher's approval

Question 32

On some occasions, attributing students' failures to lack of effort is quite appropriate. On other occasions, attributions to effort can backfire and be counterproductive. Which one of the following alternatives is the most accurate description of how attributions to effort can sometimes have adverse effects?

A) When students fail at a task they have tried very hard at and are then told that they didn't try hard enough, they may decide they simply don't have the ability to do the task and give up.
B) When students fail at a task at which they have not tried very hard to succeed and are then told that they didn't exert enough effort, they are likely to feel resentment toward their teacher.
C) When students are told that they didn't try hard enough at a task that they expended quite a bit of effort on, they will almost certainly attribute the failure to bad luck.
D) When students are told that they didn't exert enough effort and they really didn't try very hard, they are likely to attribute their failure to an external factor and not accept responsibility for it.

Question 33

Students have just done well on what was obviously an easy assignment. If their teacher praises them for their success, they are likely to:

A) Exert more effort next time
B) Have high self-efficacy for academic tasks
C) Adopt mastery goals rather than performance goals
D) Conclude that they will have difficulty with more challenging tasks

Question 34

Frank is a good student. He attributes his success partly to studying long hours and partly to his intelligence ("High achievement runs in the family," he says). From the perspective of attributions, three of the following statements are likely to be accurate descriptions of Frank. Which one is probably not an accurate description?

A) He feels proud of his academic accomplishments.
B) He has high self-efficacy regarding school tasks.
C) He expects to continue doing well in school over the next few years.
D) Because he learns quickly, he relies primarily on rote learning strategies.

Question 35

Tim and Sally are two fifth graders who have entered their science projects in an elementary school science fair. They both receive blue ribbons on their projects. Considering gender differences in students' explanations for success, how are the two students likely to explain their blue ribbons?

A) Tim will think, "I got a ribbon because I'm really good in science." Sally will think, "I got a ribbon because I worked really hard on my project."
B) Tim will attribute his ribbon to his many nights of hard work. Sally will think, "I got a ribbon because I'm good in science."
C) Tim will think that he is lucky when it comes to projects like this. Sally will think that she succeeded because her father is a scientist and she must have inherited his ability.
D) Tim will think, "My project got a ribbon because I had a lot of help from my friends." Sally will think, "I got a ribbon because I'm smarter than the other kids."

Question 36

Ms. Simons believes that Jeremy has the ability to do better on math tests than he is currently doing. Given the textbook's discussion of attributions, how is Ms. Simons most likely to act toward Jeremy?

A) She'll be annoyed when he doesn't do well.
B) She'll express sympathy and pity when he doesn't do well.
C) She'll model a self-protective bias for Jeremy.
D) She'll completely ignore Jeremy, in an attempt to extinguish his nonproductive behavior.

Question 37

Virginia is 7 years old. Georgia is 14 years old. Both girls like to write short stories, but neither is a very writer. Virginia is more likely than Georgia to believe that:

A) Good writing is all a matter of luck.
B) She has little chance of ever writing professionally.
C) She can become an excellent writer if she continues to work at it.
D) Professional writing is beyond the reach of all but a few very talented individuals.

Question 38

People often have multiple goals toward which they are striving. Under such circumstances, they may do any three of the following. Which one are they least likely to do?

A) Pursue one or two goals first, leaving others to be accomplished at a later time
B) Redefine their ideas about what it means to achieve their goals successfully
C) Find activities that enable them to accomplish two or more goals simultaneously
D) Become so frustrated that they don't accomplish any of their goals

Question 39

For the past three years, 16-year-old Susan has set her sights on becoming an electrical engineer. Which one of the following statements about Susan is consistent with research on career goals?

A) It's highly unusual for an adolescent like Susan to have such a stable career goal.
B) Susan worries about whether she'll be able to handle both her career and motherhood.
C) Susan's high aspirations are quite surprising; most adolescents (boys and girls alike) tend to aspire to careers far below what they are capable of achieving.
D) Susan is likely to find equal numbers of males and females in her college engineering classes.

Question 40

Which one of the following students most clearly has a work-avoidance goal?

A) Last night Frederick stayed up so late watching television that he can hardly stay awake in class.
B) Loni is so active in student government that she often doesn't have time to get her homework done.
C) Chris asks for his teacher's help on a task he is perfectly capable of doing on his own.
D) Nancy wonders why she has to work harder than her friends to get the same grades they do.

Question 41

Which one of the following alternatives best describes the differences between people with a mastery orientation and those with learned helplessness?

A) People with a mastery orientation expect that they will have to work extremely hard to master new tasks. People with learned helplessness usually overestimate their abilities.
B) People with a mastery orientation set easily attainable goals and become frustrated when they don't attain those goals effortlessly. People with learned helplessness set goals that are almost impossible to attain.
C) People with a mastery orientation attribute their successes to external, uncontrollable factors. People with an attitude of learned helplessness attribute failures to internal, controllable factors.
D) People with a mastery orientation set high goals and seek challenges. People with learned helplessness underestimate their ability and set low goals.

Question 42

Mona is showing signs of learned helplessness. Which one of the following would we be least likely to see her do?

A) Learn more slowly than other children.
B) Be slow to exhibit behaviors that are likely to be reinforced.
C) Express anger and aggression.
D) Be fearful and withdrawn.

Question 43

Three of the following statements accurately describe how a child can acquire learned helplessness in a particular domain. Which statement is not a likely explanation of learned helplessness?

A) A child has consistently focused on mastery goals, without regard for important performance goals.
B) A child has consistently encountered failure despite hard work and persistence.
C) A parent has consistently encouraged a child to give up when success doesn't come quickly and easily.
D) A child sees most or all peers consistently encountering failure in the domain.

Question 44

When 15-year-old Valerie discovers that she earned an A on last week's assignment, she expresses pride to her teacher and explains that she worked very hard on it. On the way home from school, however, she tells her friends that she didn't put much effort into the project at all and so is quite surprised about her high grade. From the perspective of research on attributions, how can we best explain Valerie's conflicting statements?

A) She suspects that her friends have performance goals rather than mastery goals, and she is trying to go along with the crowd.
B) She knows that her teacher is more likely than her friends to have an entity view of intelligence, and she tailors her explanations accordingly.
C) She knows that her teacher values hard work but that her friends do not, and she tailors her explanations accordingly.
D) Her social goals are taking precedence over her achievement goals on both occasions.

Question 45

Mr. Richardson does not expect much of his students from a poor, inner-city neighborhood. Given what we know about the effects of teacher expectations, which outcome is most likely?

A) His students are likely to learn information in a rote rather than meaningful manner.
B) His students are likely to develop more positive self-concepts than they would otherwise.
C) His students are more likely to develop a realistic understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses than they would otherwise.
D) His students are likely to achieve at a lower level than they would otherwise.

Question 46

A student who has developed learned helplessness about his or her spelling ability is most likely to say which of the following?

A) "I have to work harder than my friends to learn to spell."
B) "I can learn how to spell words correctly without even trying."
C) "No matter how much I study words, I can't remember how to spell them."
D) "I would learn to spell eventually, but it's not worth the time it would take to do so."

Question 47

Three of the following examples illustrate ways in which self-regulated learners can control their own motivation. Which one does not?

A) Linda enjoys doing her math homework, but she finds her Spanish homework boring.
B) Sanford continually reminds himself that doing well in his classes is important if he wants to get into medical school.
C) Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey turn their group study session into a mock quiz-show format.
D) When choosing a topic for her research paper, Nancy picks something she will enjoy reading about.

Question 48

Three of the following conditions appear to be important for the development of a learner's internalized motivation. Which one of the following is probably not an important condition for internalized motivation to develop?

A) Important people in the learner's life have expectations for his or her behavior and will impose consequences for inappropriate behavior.
B) The learner is capable of abstract thought; from a Piagetian perspective, the learner has advanced to the formal operations stage.
C) The learner has some autonomy in terms of choosing how to act in various situations.
D) The learner feels the warmth and support of important people in his or her environment.

Question 49

Three of the following strategies should engage students' interest in class material. Which one is least likely to do so?

A) Have each student read a different character's lines when the class is reading the play Our Town.
B) Asking students to imagine what it must have been like to live in medieval England.
C) Showing students a scientific phenomenon that isn't what they'd expect to happen given their existing beliefs about the world.
D) Telling students that occasional failures are probably due to circumstances beyond their control.

Question 50

Mr. James gives weekly quizzes in his social studies classes. Which one of the following boys is most likely to develop learned helplessness about his performance on those quizzes?

A) Alan usually gets As on the quizzes, but he once wrote down the wrong reading assignment and so failed a quiz over material he hadn't read.
B) Benjamin studies very hard, but due to a reading disability he has trouble understanding what he reads and usually fails the quizzes in spite of his efforts.
C) Corin never studies for the quizzes because he thinks social studies is a boring subject.
D) Darren usually gets at least a C on the quizzes, but he rarely does as well as his friend Eddie.

Question 51

Considering research regarding when teacher-expectation effects are most likely to occur, which teachers should be most careful to communicate high expectations for students' performance?

A) First and second grade teachers
B) Third and fourth grade teachers
C) Teachers of students who are beginning their second year of high school
D) Teachers of students who are finishing their final year of high school

Question 52

Researchers have identified several reasons why students may avoid seeking help when they need it during a learning task. Three of the following are among the reasons they've identified. Which one is not such a reason?

A) Students worry that others may belittle their requests for help.
B) Students want to maintain their sense of autonomy and independence.
C) Students are worried that asking for help might make them look foolish or incompetent.
D) Students have mastery goals, but not performance goals, relative to the subject matter.

Question 53

In which one of the following situations does a teacher's behavior reflect low expectations for a student's classroom performance?

A) Ms. Littlefield assigns Owen a difficult math problem.
B) Mr. Oya frequently engages René in conversation before class.
C) Ms. Ingalls rarely gives Joseph any feedback about his performance.
D) Mr. Montoya gives Mei-Yau many opportunities to answer questions in class.

Question 54

Three of the following illustrate a product goal toward which learners might strive. Which one illustrates a process goal?

A) Trying to get one's form right in serving a tennis ball
B) Trying to earn scores of 95% or higher on weekly spelling tests
C) Trying to get an editorial published in the local newspaper
D) Trying to win a race

Question 55

The textbook recommends that teachers encourage students to set and work toward proximal goals. Which one of the following illustrates a proximal goal?

A) Becoming a reporter for a national news channel such as CNN
B) Maintaining a 4.0 GPA throughout the high school years
C) Learning the symbols for all the elements in a chemistry class
D) Shooting for admission to a local community college rather than a prestigious and highly selective private college

Question 56

Rosamie does her homework primarily to gain her teacher's approval. She has little internal desire to do her homework, although she does feel slight twinges of guilt when she fails to get an assignment done on time. If we consider the sequence that Deci and Ryan have described for the development of internalized motivation, Rosamie appears to be showing:

A) external regulation
B) introjection
C) identification
D) integration

Question 57

When Scott was first learning how to write, he wrote quickly and sloppily, without regard for how his papers looked. But his teachers praised him regularly for writing carefully and legibly, and eventually he began to pride himself on his neat and careful handwriting. This transition can best be described as:

A) Acquiring an external locus of control
B) Developing internalized motivation
C) Developing situational interest
D) Developing extrinsic motivation

Question 58

Marlita failed her English literature exam. Given what research tells us about the role of self-protective bias as a factor affecting students' attributions, how is Marlita least likely to explain her failure?

A) She had bad luck.
B) She didn't study enough.
C) The teacher writes bad exams.
D) The room was too noisy during the exam.

Question 59

Which one of the following would be the best thing to do if a teacher wanted to help students internalize values that would help them achieve success over the long run?

A) Give frequent pop quizzes as a way of encouraging them to study every night.
B) Conduct "history trivia" competitions using a television game-show format.
C) Assign reading materials that have been written for professionals in such disciplines as biology and archaeology.
D) Help them understand why certain skills are important in the adult world.

Question 60

Mark and Meg are two eighth-grade students who have just failed a math test. Considering gender differences in students' explanations for failure, how are the two students likely to explain their poor test performance?

A) Mark will think he failed because he "just can't do math." Meg will think, "I got an F because I didn't work hard enough on this subject-I could have studied more."
B) Mark will attribute his failure to a lack of effort, thinking, "I didn't study very hard because I don't care about getting good grades." Meg will think, "I'm just not very good at math."
C) Mark will think that he isn't very lucky when it comes to tests, and Meg will think that she failed because she didn't have friends that could help her study.
D) Mark will think, "I got an F because I'm not smart enough to do this math." Meg will think, "I failed because the teacher hates me and the test wasn't fair."

Question 61

Three of the following strategies are consistent with the textbook's recommendations for forming expectations and attributions for student performance. Which one is not consistent with the textbook's recommendations?

A) Assume that every student has one or more areas of strength.
B) Communicate the belief that learning more effective strategies may help students perform more successfully.
C) Depend primarily on informal, subjective impressions to assess students' achievement.
D) Keep in mind that teachers can make a significant difference in students' lives.

Question 62

Three of the following statements are accurate descriptions of how competition affects motivation and affect. Which statement is not accurate?

A) On average, competition leads to more negative attitudes toward school.
B) People in a competitive situation focus more on looking good than on learning something.
C) Losers in a competitive situation suffer a loss of self-efficacy.
D) Losers in a competitive situation are likely to attribute their losses to their own lack of effort.

Question 63

The textbook describes a number of cognitive factors affecting motivation. Briefly describe each of the following factors, giving a concrete example and explaining how you might promote it in a classroom or other applied setting.
a. Personal interest
b. Situational interest
c. Expectancy
d. Value
e. Mastery goal

Question 64

Explain each of the following situations using what you have learned about attributions.
a. After a history of school failures, Marcus eventually stops trying to do well.
b. A fifth-grade teacher gives her class a difficult mathematics test, and many of her students fail it. She tells her class that she will give them a different test over the same material tomorrow. Many of the boys in the class say they will go home and study again. Some of the girls say that they already studied once, and it didn't do much good, so why bother?
c. Samantha's mother helps her study for an addition test on Tuesday and a subtraction test on Thursday. Samantha passes the Tuesday test and is quite proud of herself. She fails the Thursday test and blames her mother for not helping her enough.

Question 65

You are hired to teach a struggling student (we'll call her Joyce) more effective study skills. Describe six different strategies that you will teach Joyce so that she can study and learn more effectively. Include at least one strategy for helping Joyce learn new concepts as she studies and at least one strategy that will enable her to transfer what she is learning to new situations.

Question 66

Explain the difference between rote learning and meaningful learning from the perspective of contemporary cognitive psychology. Now distinguish between the two forms of learning in terms of the following:
a. Which one leads to faster storage in long-term memory, and why?
b. Which one leads to faster retrieval from long-term memory, and why?
c. Which one promotes better transfer and problem solving, and why?

Question 67

Describe what cognitive psychologists mean by the process of construction. Illustrate your explanation with three examples, one related to each of the following:
a. Perception
b. Long-term memory storage
c. Long-term memory retrieval

Question 68

Reinforcement plays a major role in both operant conditioning and social cognitive theory. Identify two ways in which the role of reinforcement is different in the two perspectives.

Question 69

Classify each of the following situations as involving either classical conditioning or operant conditioning. In each case, defend your answer by analyzing the situation within the context of the learning paradigm you have chosen.
a. A father reminds his son James to be quiet at the dinner table. James stops talking, and his father smiles at him.
b. Ralph's friend offers him an illegal drug. Ralph takes the drug and finds that it makes him feel euphoric. Ralph begins to buy the drug himself and takes it more and more frequently.
c. Linda is a bright, academically capable girl. Once, when she was sick, she failed an important test. Now she is very anxious whenever she takes a test.

Question 70

Describe the sequence through which, according to Deci and Ryan, motivation may become increasingly internalized over time. Use a concrete example to illustrate your discussion.

Question 71

Eileen is reluctant to go out for the school soccer team. We want to enhance her self-confidence about becoming a successful soccer player. If we consider the textbook's recommendations for communicating optimistic attributions, the best thing we can say to Eileen is:

A) "Some people are just naturally good soccer players, and I've seen signs that you're probably one of them."
B) "You have some natural athletic ability, and learning and practicing new techniques will make you even better."
C) "Skill in soccer is totally a function of how hard you work at the game."
D) "The game of soccer is largely a matter of luck. Some days are good ones and some days are bad. You just never know how things will go."

Question 72

People's attributions for themselves and for others depend on a variety of factors. Describe how one's self-attributions may be partly a function of six of the following:

Question 73

Compare the behaviorist and cognitive approaches to learning, identifying at least four differences between these two approaches.

Question 74

Three of the following statements describe advantages of challenging tasks for motivation. Which statement does not accurately describe the motivational effects of a challenge?

A) Although challenges promote little or no intrinsic motivation, they promote considerable extrinsic motivation.
B) Challenging tasks are more interesting.
C) Success on challenging tasks enhances self-efficacy.
D) Success on challenging tasks cannot easily be attributed to luck or other outside factors.

Question 75

Research regarding attribution retraining indicates that:

A) It is effective with adults but not with children.
B) One effective strategy is to teach students how to attribute their performance to controllable factors.
C) Retraining is most effective when students don't encounter failure experiences.
D) Attributions, once established, are almost impossible to change.

Question 76

In its discussion of motivation, the textbook describes mastery goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals.
a. In a short paragraph, explain how these three types of goals are different.
b. Describe four ways in which students with mastery goals and those with performance goals (especially those with performance-avoidance goals) are likely to think and/or act differently.
c. List three strategies you might use to promote mastery goals. Illustrate each one with a concrete example of something you might do.

Question 77

Choose either an educational or a therapeutic setting. Identify three implications of each of these perspectives-behaviorism, social cognitive theory, and cognitive psychology-for the setting you have selected.

Question 78

Many principles of motivation can be summed up with the mnemonic "TARGETS": task, autonomy, recognition, grouping, evaluation, time, and social support. In seven paragraphs, describe seven strategies-one each related to each of the seven TARGETS variables-you might use to motivate students in a classroom. Illustrate each strategy with a specific, concrete example of what you might do.

Question 79

Many learning theorists propose that elaboration sometimes occurs in learning.
a. Define what they mean by the term elaboration, and give a concrete example to illustrate it.
b. Explain:
(1) Why theorists recommend that learners elaborate as much as possible
(2) How schemas and scripts are often involved in elaboration
(3) Why different people may elaborate differently on the same information
(4) Why elaboration sometimes leads to the storage of inaccurate information

Question 80

Perspectives such as behaviorism and social cognitive theory show us how the consequence (reinforcement or punishment) of a particular behavior affects the extent to which the behavior is likely to appear again. Attribution theory has cast a new light on this notion, maintaining that the consequences of behavior will affect each person's learning and future behavior differently depending on how the individual interprets those consequences. Within the context of attribution theory:
a. Explain what motivation theorists mean when they talk about attributions.
b. Explain how learners' responses to failure are likely to be different when they attribute that failure to a controllable cause or to an uncontrollable one. Give a concrete example to illustrate your explanation.
c. Describe three specific strategies you might use to foster more productive attributions in others. In each case, use attribution theory to explain why you think the strategy should be effective.