WGU D664 Learners and Learning Science Exam 3 - Questions
with Correct Answers (Verified Update)
50 questions
1. Which definition of 'learning' is most widely accepted in educational psychology?
A. Any temporary change in mood
B. Physical growth due to maturation
C. A relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior resulting from experience
D. Memorizing information for a test
Correct Answer: C. A relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior resulting from
experience
Rationale: Learning is distinguished from maturation and temporary states by being experience-based
and lasting.
2. A teacher uses a short ungraded quiz at the start of class covering last week's material. Which
principle is she applying?
A. Massed practice
B. Overjustification
C. Retrieval practice
D. Negative reinforcement
Correct Answer: C. Retrieval practice
Rationale: Low-stakes recall of earlier material strengthens long-term retention.
3. A math teacher shows a fully solved problem, then a partly solved one for students to finish,
then an unsolved one. This is:
A. Discovery learning
B. Interleaving
C. Classical conditioning
D. Faded worked examples
Correct Answer: D. Faded worked examples
Rationale: Gradually removing worked-out steps reduces cognitive load for novices while building
independence.
4. Students learn more when they explain to themselves why each step in a solution works. This
strategy is called:
A. Rereading
B. Highlighting
C. Massed rehearsal
D. Self-explanation
Correct Answer: D. Self-explanation
Rationale: Self-explanation integrates new information with prior knowledge and exposes gaps.
5. Students who can apply a skill learned in math class to a science lab are demonstrating:
A. Interference
B. Transfer of learning
C. Extinction
D. Decay
Correct Answer: B. Transfer of learning
Rationale: Transfer is applying learning in new contexts; teaching for understanding and varied examples
promotes it.
, 6. The 'expertise reversal effect' indicates that:
A. Supports that help novices (like worked examples) can hinder advanced learners
B. Experts always need more scaffolding
C. Novices learn best with no guidance
D. Expertise cannot be developed
Correct Answer: A. Supports that help novices (like worked examples) can hinder advanced
learners
Rationale: Instruction should be adjusted as learners gain knowledge; scaffolds should be faded.
7. A kindergarten student insists a tall, thin glass holds more juice than a short, wide glass with
the same amount. She is focusing on one dimension, an error Piaget called:
A. Accommodation
B. Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
C. Object permanence
D. Centration
Correct Answer: D. Centration
Rationale: Centration, attending to one feature while ignoring others, prevents preoperational children
from conserving.
8. An infant searches for a toy hidden under a blanket. She has developed:
A. Conservation
B. Reversibility
C. Object permanence
D. Abstract reasoning
Correct Answer: C. Object permanence
Rationale: Object permanence develops in the sensorimotor stage (birth to about 2).
9. A 9-year-old understands that 3 + 4 = 7 means 7 - 4 = 3. This mental operation is:
A. Egocentrism
B. Animism
C. Centration
D. Reversibility
Correct Answer: D. Reversibility
Rationale: Reversibility, mentally undoing an operation, is characteristic of concrete operational thought.
10. A middle-school teacher wants students to reason about 'what would happen if gravity were
half as strong.' Students must use which type of thinking?
A. Sensorimotor exploration
B. Preoperational symbolic play
C. Classical conditioning
D. Hypothetical (formal operational) reasoning
Correct Answer: D. Hypothetical (formal operational) reasoning
Rationale: Reasoning about hypothetical situations requires formal operational thinking, which emerges
around early adolescence.
11. A teacher pairs a struggling reader with a stronger peer who models strategies and gradually
lets the partner lead. Which theorist's ideas does this best reflect?
A. Skinner
B. Pavlov
C. Maslow
D. Vygotsky
Correct Answer: D. Vygotsky
Rationale: Peer modeling within the ZPD with fading support reflects sociocultural theory.
with Correct Answers (Verified Update)
50 questions
1. Which definition of 'learning' is most widely accepted in educational psychology?
A. Any temporary change in mood
B. Physical growth due to maturation
C. A relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior resulting from experience
D. Memorizing information for a test
Correct Answer: C. A relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior resulting from
experience
Rationale: Learning is distinguished from maturation and temporary states by being experience-based
and lasting.
2. A teacher uses a short ungraded quiz at the start of class covering last week's material. Which
principle is she applying?
A. Massed practice
B. Overjustification
C. Retrieval practice
D. Negative reinforcement
Correct Answer: C. Retrieval practice
Rationale: Low-stakes recall of earlier material strengthens long-term retention.
3. A math teacher shows a fully solved problem, then a partly solved one for students to finish,
then an unsolved one. This is:
A. Discovery learning
B. Interleaving
C. Classical conditioning
D. Faded worked examples
Correct Answer: D. Faded worked examples
Rationale: Gradually removing worked-out steps reduces cognitive load for novices while building
independence.
4. Students learn more when they explain to themselves why each step in a solution works. This
strategy is called:
A. Rereading
B. Highlighting
C. Massed rehearsal
D. Self-explanation
Correct Answer: D. Self-explanation
Rationale: Self-explanation integrates new information with prior knowledge and exposes gaps.
5. Students who can apply a skill learned in math class to a science lab are demonstrating:
A. Interference
B. Transfer of learning
C. Extinction
D. Decay
Correct Answer: B. Transfer of learning
Rationale: Transfer is applying learning in new contexts; teaching for understanding and varied examples
promotes it.
, 6. The 'expertise reversal effect' indicates that:
A. Supports that help novices (like worked examples) can hinder advanced learners
B. Experts always need more scaffolding
C. Novices learn best with no guidance
D. Expertise cannot be developed
Correct Answer: A. Supports that help novices (like worked examples) can hinder advanced
learners
Rationale: Instruction should be adjusted as learners gain knowledge; scaffolds should be faded.
7. A kindergarten student insists a tall, thin glass holds more juice than a short, wide glass with
the same amount. She is focusing on one dimension, an error Piaget called:
A. Accommodation
B. Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
C. Object permanence
D. Centration
Correct Answer: D. Centration
Rationale: Centration, attending to one feature while ignoring others, prevents preoperational children
from conserving.
8. An infant searches for a toy hidden under a blanket. She has developed:
A. Conservation
B. Reversibility
C. Object permanence
D. Abstract reasoning
Correct Answer: C. Object permanence
Rationale: Object permanence develops in the sensorimotor stage (birth to about 2).
9. A 9-year-old understands that 3 + 4 = 7 means 7 - 4 = 3. This mental operation is:
A. Egocentrism
B. Animism
C. Centration
D. Reversibility
Correct Answer: D. Reversibility
Rationale: Reversibility, mentally undoing an operation, is characteristic of concrete operational thought.
10. A middle-school teacher wants students to reason about 'what would happen if gravity were
half as strong.' Students must use which type of thinking?
A. Sensorimotor exploration
B. Preoperational symbolic play
C. Classical conditioning
D. Hypothetical (formal operational) reasoning
Correct Answer: D. Hypothetical (formal operational) reasoning
Rationale: Reasoning about hypothetical situations requires formal operational thinking, which emerges
around early adolescence.
11. A teacher pairs a struggling reader with a stronger peer who models strategies and gradually
lets the partner lead. Which theorist's ideas does this best reflect?
A. Skinner
B. Pavlov
C. Maslow
D. Vygotsky
Correct Answer: D. Vygotsky
Rationale: Peer modeling within the ZPD with fading support reflects sociocultural theory.
