Compare and contrast the four learning theories presented in the text. Which of these theories is most consistent with your own perspective?
What will be an ideal response?
ANS: Behaviorism (B. F. Skinner) is teacher-centered; teachers are in control by regulating the stimuli, reinforcements, and punishments presented in class. Students are thought to respond to external stimuli and learn through reinforcements. Cognitive theory (Jean Piaget) is somewhat learner-centered in that it emphasizes learning as active rather than passive. This perspective suggests that symbolic mental constructions in the minds of learners help them process information. Social cognitive theories (Lev Vygotsky) are also somewhat learner-centered. In addition to considering mental processes, these theories emphasize the importance of the social environment and social interactions in learning. Constructivism is learner-centered, emphasizing that all learners construct their own perspectives of the world based on their individual experiences and personal schemes. Mental models are adjusted to incorporate new experiences and make sense of new information. Teachers need to be aware of students’ mental schemes in order to help them integrate new knowledge. Responses to the last portion will vary.
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Measurement of variables is more difficult in
a. physical sciences. c. social sciences. b. natural sciences. d. a and b.
Many students and teachers work in schools and live in homes with older computer equipment, slow Internet connections, or both. If a website takes too long to load, one way to increase access speed would be to:
a. turn off the image downloading in the browser settings. b. change the IP address of the computer from a dynamic to a static number. c. add more storage space. d. Turn off call forwarding.
A psychologist was interested in gauging the success of a mood manipulation during one of her experiments. She had three groups of participants who underwent different types of mood induction: disgust mood induction, negative mood induction and positive mood induction. After the mood induction, participants were asked to endorse nine statements relating to their mood (on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 = disagree to 5 = agree). A discriminant function analysis was performed on the data. The output is below. Which statement best sums up the results?
A. There were two significant underlying functions that differentiated the mood induction groups: one seems to reflect disgust, whereas the other reflects depression.
B. There was one significant underlying function that differentiates the mood induction groups: it seems to represent disgust.
C. There were two significant underlying functions that differentiated the mood induction groups, but it’s unclear what these functions represent.
D. There were no significant underlying functions that could discriminate the mood induction groups.
A dentist decides to investigate whether a pre-operation briefing (or lack thereof) affects his patients' anxiety scale ratings on a standardized test taken immediately following a root canal operation. He is also interested in knowing whether these ratings are affected when classical, rock, or no music is playing during the operation. How can he simultaneously measure the effects of these two conditions? Choose the appropriate test.
a. Chi-square Test for Goodness of Fit with 1 df b. Chi-square Test for Goodness of Fit with > 1 df c. Chi-square Test for Independence d. z-test for a proportion e. One-way ANOVA f. Two-way ANOVA