Question 1

The primary advantage of using an algorithm (rather than a heuristic) is that it:

Accepted Answer

A)   Always yields a correct solution if executed correctly
B)   Is widely applicable to many different content domains
C)   Can be easily used by the typical 6-year-old child
D)   Never takes more than five minutes to complete A

Question 2

Three of the teachers below are using techniques that should facilitate students' problem-solving abilities. Which one is not doing so?

Accepted Answer

A)   Mr. Arons has students practice their basic multiplication and division facts until they can recall each fact quickly and easily.
B)   Mr. Bohlender emphasizes factual knowledge on classroom exams.
C)   Mr. Curry gives students practice in changing ill-defined problems into more well-defined ones.
D)   On his quizzes, Mr. Dickinson includes problems that students haven't seen before. B

Question 3

Nine-year-old Aleesa wants her father to play a video game with her, but Dad tells her, "Sorry, honey, I don't have time. There are dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, and the living room has to be dusted and vacuumed. I need to clean the house before Grandma and Grandpa come tonight. Aleesa thinks for a moment and then says, "How about if I wash the dishes and do the dusting? That way, you'll have some time to play with me." Aleesa's approach to solving her problem-convincing Dad to play a video game-most clearly reflects:

Accepted Answer

A)   brainstorming
B)   use of an analogy
C)   functional fixedness
D)   means-ends analysis D

Question 4

Which one of the following best describes a classroom that has a culture of transfer?

Accepted Answer

A)   Teacher and students regularly look for ways to apply what they're studying.
B)   Students from diverse backgrounds meet in small groups to brainstorm potential solutions to social problems.
C)   The teacher encourages students to share their study strategies with one another.
D)   Classroom topics are never labeled as "belonging" to a particular academic discipline (e.g., as being a "mathematical" procedure or a part of "history") .

Question 5

Martha is trying to decide what to give to her best friend Rose as a birthday present. She begins by looking closely at how Rose spends her time. She also browses in a number of different department stores to identify numerous things within her price range. Then she lets the problem "incubate" in her head for a few days while she engages in other activities. Eventually she chooses what she thinks will be the best gift for Rose. Martha's approach to the problem can probably best be understood from which of the following perspectives of problem solving?

Accepted Answer

A)   Stages of problem solving
B)   Trial-and-error
C)   The Gestalt notion of insight
D)   Response hierarchy

Question 6

Three of the following teaching strategies should promote critical thinking. Which strategy, although beneficial in other ways, will not necessarily promote critical thinking skills?

Accepted Answer

A)   Teach critical thinking skills within the context of several different subject-area courses.
B)   Have students relate new information to things they already know about the world.
C)   Have students debate a controversial issue by taking a perspective in direct opposition to what they actually believe.
D)   Ask students to read a persuasive essay and look for possible flaws in the author's line of reasoning.

Question 7

Leo has recently studied the principle of reinforcement in his psychology class. He is now trying to teach his daughter good table manners. From an information processing perspective of transfer, is Leo likely to use the principle of reinforcement in helping his daughter learn manners?

Accepted Answer

A)   Definitely yes
B)   Definitely no
C)   Only if he retrieves the principle of reinforcement at the time he is teaching his daughter
D)   Only if he has previously learned the principle of reinforcement to a level of automaticity

Question 8

Critical thinking can best be described as involving:

Accepted Answer

A)   Knowing the best course of action to take in complex situations
B)   Using heuristics to solve problems
C)   Keeping an open mind about controversial issues
D)   Judging the credibility of information or arguments

Question 9

In English, the word llama is pronounced "LA-MA." In Spanish, the same word is pronounced "YA-MA" (the double-L is pronounced similarly to a "Y" sound). Analyzing this situation in terms of the similarity of stimuli and responses, we can predict that a person who first learns to read the word in English and then learns to read it in Spanish will:

Accepted Answer

A)   Benefit from positive transfer
B)   Suffer from negative transfer
C)   Have little or no transfer from one language to the other
D)   Benefit from positive transfer only if the two languages are learned close together in time

Question 10

Research indicates that people are more likely to be successful problem solvers in a given subject area when they:

Accepted Answer

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

Question 11

Describe three different strategies you might use to encourage students or clients to engage in critical thinking about a topic. Illustrate each strategy with a concrete example.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe three different strategies you might use...

Question 12

Sarah needs to solve this word problem: A sweater in a store is originally priced at $40, but the price tag is marked "One-half off." The sweater is placed on a rack marked "Five dollars off the sale price." How much does the sweater cost now?
Sarah knows how to find one-half of a number; she also knows how to subtract one number from another. She uses both of these operations to arrive at the correct answer of $15. Which one of the following best describes Sarah's approach to problem solving?

Accepted Answer

A)   drawing an analogy
B)   availability
C)   working backward
D)   combining algorithms

Question 13

When 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:

Accepted Answer

A)   incubation
B)   inert knowledge
C)   a problem schema
D)   means-ends analysis

Question 14

Sheila is a physicist who has been successfully solving physics problems for years. Tamara is a beginning physics student. Which one of the following differences between Sheila and Tamara are we most likely to see in terms of how they approach physics problems?

Accepted Answer

A)   Sheila is more likely than Tamara to make sure the problems are well-defined before she begins to solve them.
B)   Sheila is more likely than Tamara to classify problems based on their superficial characteristics.
C)   Sheila is apt to retrieve less information from long-term memory than Tamara retrieves.
D)   Sheila is more likely than Tamara to have functional fixedness when she works on problems.

Question 15

Which one of the following problems is most likely to be solved with a heuristic rather than an algorithm?

Accepted Answer

A)   Calculating the volume of a cylinder
B)   Resolving an argument
C)   Finding the word "antonym" in the dictionary
D)   Locating books about spiders in the school library

Question 16

Choose a particular content domain (e.g., math, science, history, English literature) and give two examples that critical thinking in that domain might entail. Your examples should reflect two of the following forms of critical thinking:

Accepted Answer

The answer of Choose a particular content domain (e.g., math,...

Question 17

Which one of the following most clearly illustrates vertical (as opposed to lateral) transfer?

Accepted Answer

A)   The skill Arnold has developed as a marathon runner helps him later in life when he jogs for exercise.
B)   Brian has learned study skills in his history class that he also finds useful in his English literature class.
C)   Conway's knowledge of addition and subtraction helps him learn accounting procedures.
D)   David's knowledge of the human digestive system helps him understand the digestive system of an earthworm.

Question 18

Only one of the following students is definitely engaging in critical thinking. Which one?

Accepted Answer

A)   Louise has a puzzled look as she reads her textbook. "I don't understand what the author is trying to say," she thinks.
B)   Sam reads over his responses to the
C)   As Morgan watches her lab partner experiment with a pendulum, she says, "You just changed the length of the string at the same time you added more weight. That won't tell us anything."
D)   Raul jumps at the chance to learn how to use desktop publishing software. "I'm particularly interested in learning how to integrate text and graphics," he tell his teacher.

Question 19

Peny is trying to solve the following riddle: "What creature walks first on four legs, then two, then three?" He repeatedly tries to think of an animal that might walk on three legs, but he can only think of animals that walk on either two or four legs. Finally, he is told the correct answer: a human being, who crawls, then walks, then walks with a cane. Which one of the following is the most likely explanation of Perry's difficulty?

Accepted Answer

A)   He has encoded the problem with too narrow a definition of "legs."
B)   He doesn't have enough working memory capacity.
C)   He doesn't have a sufficient knowledge base.
D)   He is suffering from functional fixedness.

Question 20

Which one of the following examples most clearly illustrates how mental set can interfere with problem solving?

Accepted Answer

A)   A few days after an argument with her boyfriend, Abigail wants to make amends, but the boyfriend tells her that he is now dating someone else.
B)   Bernadette needs to calculate the volume of a pyramid. She knows she learned the correct formula in class, but she can't seem to remember it now.
C)   Corinne is working on a jigsaw puzzle. One of the pieces to the puzzle is missing.
D)   Danielle's car won't start. It doesn't occur to her that she can take the bus to work because she has always driven her car to work before.

Exam 15: Transfer, Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking