Learner and Learning Process Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The steps of Bandura's social learning (observational learning) run: attention (attending to and perceiving the behaviour, d), retention (remembering it, a), reproduction (connecting the memory in action, b) and reinforcement or motivation (c). So the order is d, a, b, c. The other sequences place remembering or action before the attention step, which is impossible. Attention is first because nothing can be learned from a model that is not noticed, retention follows because the observed behaviour has to be stored in memory, reproduction is the stage at which the memory is turned into action and reinforcement or motivation decides whether the behaviour is repeated.

Answer: A

The remark is by J.B. Watson, the founder of behaviourism, who said that if given a dozen healthy infants he could train any of them to be any kind of specialist, whatever the child's talents, whether doctor, lawyer, artist or thief. It expresses the belief that environment and training shape behaviour.

Hull is known for the drive reduction theory, Jung for analytical psychology and Guthrie for the contiguity theory of learning, so none of them is the source of the remark.

Answer: D

The key is Guthrie's theory of learning as the one that does not belong. Operant conditioning, Pavlov's classical conditioning and Watson's theory are all conditioning theories of the stimulus-response type with a special account of the stimuli and responses, whereas Guthrie's theory is a theory of contiguity, in which learning follows from a single pairing of a stimulus and a response without reinforcement.

The other three are conditioning theories in the narrower sense, which is the basis of the grouping that the key follows.

Answer: C

The view that anything can be taught at any stage of development, in an intellectually honest form, was expressed by Bruner, who held that the foundations of any subject may be taught to anyone at any age if they are presented in a way that suits the child's way of thinking.

Piaget stressed fixed stages of development, Ausubel is known for meaningful verbal learning and advance organisers, and Gagne for his hierarchy of learning types, so none of them stated this view.

Answer: A

The IQ is 64. The intelligence quotient is the mental age divided by the chronological age, multiplied by 100.

The values 75, 80 and 100 would need a mental age of 18.75, 20 and 25 for a boy of 25 years. A cap of about 16 years is sometimes put on the chronological age in adult testing, which would give 100, but the key uses the actual age as given in the question.

Answer: C

The pair 'social learning theory - Bruner' is incorrect: the social learning theory is the work of Albert Bandura, who stressed learning by observing and imitating models, while Bruner is known for discovery learning.

The sign theory of learning is Tolman's, the field theory is Lewin's, and the trial and error theory is Thorndike's, so each of the other three pairs is correct.

Answer: D

The key is that both are correct and the reason is not the correct explanation of the assertion. Pleasure or displeasure does decide how effective a learning experience is, which is the law of effect of Thorndike, and it is true that pleasant experiences tend to be remembered.

However, it is not true that unpleasant experiences are soon forgotten, since vivid unpleasant ones may last long, and the reason in this form therefore does not explain the assertion fully. So the choices that make the reason the explanation, or call only one or neither correct, do not fit the key.

Answer: C

The statement is an example of linear reasoning. If Ram is taller than Mohan and Mohan is taller than Sohan, the conclusion that Ram is the tallest follows by arranging the three persons in a line, a three-term series problem.

It is not inductive, as no general rule is drawn from instances, and 'conditioned reasoning' is not the name of a form of reasoning of this kind. It could be called deductive in a broad sense, but the specific type, in which items are arranged in order, is linear reasoning, which is the key.

Answer: D

The correct matching is the theory of instinct with McDougall (i), the drive reduction theory with Hull (ii, printed as Hall), the social urges theory with Adler (iii), and the self-actualisation theory with Maslow (iv), which is the code (i) (ii) (iii) (iv).

McDougall made instincts the basis of behaviour, Hull's theory explained learning by the reduction of drives, Adler's theory spoke of social interest and striving for superiority, and Maslow placed self-actualisation at the top of the hierarchy of needs. Freud (v), who is the extra name in the list, is linked with the unconscious and the psychoanalytic theory, so the other codes that bring him in are wrong.

Answer: D

The incorrect statement is that too much repetition of a stimulus captures our attention. In fact repetition of the same stimulus makes people get used to it and the attention falls, which is called habituation.

The other three statements are correct: not all stimuli bring the same attention, novelty helps in securing attention, and a moving stimulus is noticed quickly.