Introduction to

Educational Psychology
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Introduction to Educational Psychology
Description of the Examination
The Introduction to Educational Psychology exam-
ination covers material that is usually taught in a
one-semester undergraduate course in this subject.
Emphasis is placed on principles of learning and
cognition, teaching methods and classroom manage-
ment, child growth and development, and evaluation
and assessment of learning.
The examination contains 100 questions to be
answered in 90 minutes. Some of these are pretest
questions that will not be scored. Any time candidates
spend on tutorials and providing personal information
is in addition to the actual testing time.
Knowledge and Skills Required
Questions on the Introduction to Educational
Psychology examination require candidates to
demonstrate one or more of the following abilities:
Knowledge and comprehension of basic facts,
concepts, and principles
Association of ideas with given theoretical
positions
Awareness of important influences on learning
and instruction
Familiarity with research and statistical
concepts and procedures
Ability to apply various concepts and theories
as they apply to particular teaching situations
and problems
The subject matter of the Introduction to Educa-
tional Psychology examination is drawn from the
following topics. The percentages next to the main
topics indicate the approximate percentages of exam
questions on those topics.
5% Educational Aims or Philosophies
Lifelong learning
Moral/character development
Preparation for careers
Preparation for responsible citizenship
Socialization
15% Cognitive Perspective
Attention and perception
Chunking/encoding
Memory capacity
Mental imagery
Organization of long-term memory
Problem solving
Transfer
11% Behavioristic Perspective
Applications of behaviorism
Behavioral modification programs
Classical conditioning
Cognitive learning theory
Law of Effect
Operant conditioning
Schedules of reinforcement
Token economies
15% Development
Adolescence
Cognitive
Gender identity/sex roles
Language acquisition
Mental health
Moral
School readiness
Social
10% Motivation
Achievement motivation
Anxiety/stress
Locus of control/attribution theory
Learned helplessness
Intrinsic motivation
Reinforcement contingencies
Theories of motivation
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17% Individual Differences
Aptitude/achievement
Creativity
Cultural influences
Exceptionalities in learning (e.g.,
giftedness, physical handicaps,
and behavior disorders)
Intelligence
Nature vs. nurture
Reading ability
12% Testing
Assessment of instructional objectives
Bias in testing
Classroom assessment (e.g., grading proce-
dures and formative evaluation)
Descriptive statistics
Norm- and criterion-referenced tests
Scaled scores/standard deviation
Test construction (e.g., classroom tests)
Test reliability
Test validity
Use and misuse of assessment techniques
10% Pedagogy
Advance organizers
Bilingual/ESL instruction
Clarity/organization
Classroom management
Cooperative learning
Discovery and reception learning
Instructional design and technique
Psychology of content areas
Teacher expectations/Pygmalion effect/
wait time
5% Research Design and Analysis
Experiments
Longitudinal research
Qualitative research/case studies
Research analysis and statistics
Surveys
I N T R O D U C T I O N T O E D U C A T I O N A L P S Y C H O L O G Y
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Sample Test Questions
The following questions are provided to give an
indication of the types of questions that appear
on the Introduction to Educational Psychology
examination. CLEP examinations are designed
so that average students completing a course in
the subject can usually answer about half the
questions correctly.
Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete
statements below is followed by five suggested
answers or completions. Select the one that is
best in each case.
1. Which of the following learning outcomes
usually undergoes the largest loss within 24
hours of acquisition?
(A) The learning of meaningful material
(B) The learning of rote material
(C) The formulation of concepts
(D) The application of principles
(E) The making of generalizations
2. When Roberts classmates no longer showed
approval of his clowning, his clowning behavior
occurred less frequently. The concept best
exemplified by Roberts change in behavior is
(A) extinction
(B) discrimination
(C) generalization
(D) transfer
(E) learning set
3. Which of the following are functions of an
Individualized Education Program (IEP)?
I. Support for classroom teachers
II. Creates a relationship (partnership) between
regular classroom and resource team
III. Provides an instructional program to meet
the needs of the individual student
IV. Allows the school professionals to solely
make decisions without consulting parents
(A) III only
(B) I and III only
(C) III and IV only
(D) I, II, and III only
(E) I, II, III, and IV
4. In a fifth-grade class that is working on a set of
arithmetic problems, which of the following
behaviors would be most characteristic of the
student who is a divergent thinker?
(A) Writing down the principle used to solve the
problem as well as the solution itself
(B) Making answers far more exact than
is necessary
(C) Working as fast as possible in order to be
the first to finish the assignment
(D) Finding a variety of ways to solve
each problem
(E) Providing the correct solution to the greatest
number of problems
5. To measure students understanding of a theo-
rem in geometry, it is best for a teacher to have
the students do which of the following?
(A) Write out the theorem
(B) Recall the proof of the theorem
(C) Demonstrate that they have memorized
the theorem
(D) Solve a problem that is given in the textbook
(E) Solve a related problem that is not in
the textbook
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6. A child who is frightened by a dog and develops
a fear of other dogs is exhibiting which of the
following principles of learning?
(A) Discrimination learning
(B) Negative transfer
(C) Behavior shaping
(D) Stimulus generalization
(E) Cognitive dissonance
7. In experimental studies of the motor develop-
ment of identical twins, one twin is given
practice at a particular skill early and the
other twin six weeks later. The fact that it
generally takes less practice for the later-trained
twin to acquire the skill is evidence for the
importance of
(A) heredity
(B) maturation
(C) intelligence quotient (IQ)
(D) individual differences
(E) early experience
8. In a fifth-grade class studying the ancient Inca
culture, all of the following questions are likely
to stimulate pupils to think creatively EXCEPT:
(A) Why do you suppose the clothing of the
Incas was so different from todays?
(B) What weapons and tools did the Incas use
for hunting?
(C) What would be the reaction of an ancient
Inca toward modern Peru?
(D) If the Incas had defeated the Spanish, how
might things be different in Peru today?
(E) If you had lived in Peru during the time of
the Incas, what are the things you would
have liked and disliked?
9. The psychological frame of reference that deals
extensively with the effects of unconscious
motivation on behavior is
(A) behaviorism
(B) structuralism
(C) psychoanalysis
(D) humanism
(E) Gestalt psychology
10. Of the following, learning is best defined as
(A) development that occurs without
external stimulation
(B) the process of overcoming obstacles
during instinctual behavior
(C) effort that is persistent, selective,
and purposeful
(D) the modification of behavior
through experience
(E) the gathering of data to test hypotheses
11. According to cognitive learning theorists, a new
unit can be most readily learned by a class of
students when the units concepts and terms are
(A) recited from memory in a number
of contexts
(B) expressed as observable
behavioral objectives
(C) chosen to reflect the most up-to-date
findings in the field
(D) related hierarchically to concepts and
terms mastered previously
(E) presented in a manner that students
find different and complex
I N T R O D U C T I O N T O E D U C A T I O N A L P S Y C H O L O G Y
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12. A preschool child sees a teacher roll a ball of
clay into a sausage-like shape. The teacher asks,
Is the amount of clay the same as before? The
child insists that the sausage shape consists of
more clay than the ball did. According to Jean
Piaget, this mistake by the child occurs princi-
pally because of which of the following?
(A) A poorly stated question by the teacher
(B) Erroneous earlier learning by the child
(C) The greater attractiveness of the
sausage shape
(D) Functional retardation of the child
(E) A lack of understanding of the
conservation principle
13. A fourth-grade teacher wants her students
to learn to recognize oak trees. Which of
the following strategies would best lead to
that goal?
(A) Bringing oak leaves into the classroom and
having students trace them
(B) Taking the students to the park to show
them oaks and other trees and pointing out
the distinguishing characteristics of oaks
(C) Giving each student one or two acorns to
plant and presenting a lesson on how oak
trees grow
(D) Decorating the classroom bulletin boards
with pictures of trees
(E) Showing students a film of the major trees
of North America and then giving the
students a quiz on oak trees
14. Longitudinal studies of cognitive abilities
during middle and later adulthood indicate
that which of the following is most likely to
decline with age?
(A) Speed of performance
(B) Size of vocabulary
(C) Wisdom
(D) Quality of verbal reasoning
(E) Visual memory
15. If a test is reliable, the
(A) results will be approximately the same if the
test is given again under similar conditions
(B) test measures what it was designed
to measure
(C) predictive validity of the test is high
(D) objectives measured by the test
are important
(E) test scores can be interpreted objectively
by anyone simply by using the test manual
16. The concept of developmental tasks refers to the
(A) development of mental abilities, as distin-
guished from physical abilities
(B) ability of the child to develop certain
conceptual arrangements
(C) behavior of the child that results from
hereditary determinants
(D) behaviors of the child that are expected
at various ages
(E) physiological development of the child
17. Which of the following correlation coefficients
has the highest predictive value?
(A) .70
(B) .60
(C) .00
(D) .80
(E) .90
18. Which of the following statistics is most
affected by extreme scores?
(A) Mean
(B) Median
(C) Mode
(D) Rank correlation
(E) Interquartile range
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19. A certain researcher studied Stephanies devel-
opment of mathematical proof and justification
from grade 1 through grade 5 by collecting
videotapes, portfolios, notes, student interviews,
and small-group evaluations of Stephanie over
the 5-year period. This type of study is referred
to as
(A) an experimental study
(B) a case study
(C) a matched group study
(D) a correlational study
(E) a survey
20. Which of the following perspectives on teaching
would most likely support the idea that instruc-
tion should emphasize a positive relationship
between teachers and students?
(A) Behavioral
(B) Humanistic
(C) Cognitive
(D) Psychoanalytic
(E) Maturational
21. Assuming that the data above were collected in
an experimental study, which of the following
statements best describes the relationships
depicted in the graph?
(A) Differences among students in test anxiety
result in different achievement levels depend-
ing on instructional method received.
(B) Differences among students in test anxiety
result in different achievement levels inde-
pendent of instructional method received.
(C) The effect of two different instructional
methods on students achievement is
positively correlated with students test
anxiety levels.
(D) The effect of two different instructional
methods on students achievement is
negatively correlated with students test
anxiety levels.
(E) Students achievement levels are indepen-
dent of their test anxiety levels.
22. Frank, a fifteen year old, is capable of reason-
ing abstractly without the use of real objects to
assist him. According to Jean Piaget, Frank is in
which of the following stages of cognitive
development?
(A) Concrete operations
(B) Tertiary circular reactions
(C) Preoperations
(D) Formal operations
(E) Sensorimotor
High
Low
Low
Lecture Method
of Instruction
Students Test Anxiety Level
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A
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e
v
e
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e
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S
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e
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Discussion
Method of
Instruction
High
I N T R O D U C T I O N T O E D U C A T I O N A L P S Y C H O L O G Y
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23. Decisions about the values that are transmitted
in schools are best related to the teachers
role as
(A) instructional expert
(B) socialization agent
(C) counselor
(D) motivator
(E) classroom manager
24. A teacher in a third-grade class gives each
student a number of small cardboard disks. Each
student is asked to form some of the disks into
separate small groups, each with a different
number of disks. Then the teacher asks that one
disk be added to each group. When that is
accomplished, students are to attempt to state a
rule or generalization indicating what has
happened to the number of disks in each group.
This kind of learning is most accurately
described as
(A) rote
(B) directed
(C) discovery
(D) deductive
(E) passive
25. Using the principle of successive approximation
involves which of the following?
(A) Reinforcing responses that represent
progress toward a desired response
(B) Making a succession of trials designed to
provide information about a problem
(C) Acquiring a behavior change through
imitation of models demonstrating
the behavior
(D) Averaging repeated measures for adequate
assessment of a variable
(E) Testing possible solutions until success is
obtained in problem solving
26. Which of the following best characterizes
the concept of a critical or sensitive period
in development?
(A) A bridge between two cognitive stages,
such as the transition between preopera-
tional and concrete-operational thinking
(B) An age period during which a behavior must
develop if it is to develop normally
(C) An age period during which the child tends
to display a certain class of behaviors, such
as the terrible twos
(D) An age period during which the childs
sense of self-worth is especially vulnerable
to social criticism
(E) An age period during which children are
influenced more by peers than by adults
27. Grace is measuring the length and width of a
table in order to determine the area. According
to J.P. Guilfords structure of intellect model,
what mental operation is Grace using to find
the area?
(A) Formal operational thinking
(B) Convergent thinking
(C) Divergent thinking
(D) Brainstorming
(E) Memory retention
28. Some psychologists theorize that behavioral
development, like anatomical development,
proceeds from the simple to the complex, from
homogeneous to heterogeneous, and from the
general to the specific. Which of the following
terms refers to these developmental trends?
(A) Constancy
(B) Assimilation
(C) Metacognition
(D) Differentiation
(E) Transfer
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29. Paying attention to new information is impor-
tant in the learning process because such
attention brings information from
(A) an external environment into the
sensory register
(B) an external environment into long-
term memory
(C) the sensory register into short-term memory
(D) short-term memory into long-term memory
(E) the sensory register into long-term memory
30. When a two-year-old child points to a picture of
a horse in a picture book and says doggie, she
is committing an error of
(A) overregularization
(B) overextension
(C) receptive vocabulary
(D) syntax
(E) articulation
31. Which of the following psychological
schools of thought most emphasizes
perceptual organization?
(A) Behaviorism
(B) Classical conditioning
(C) Humanism
(D) Psychodynamic approach
(E) Gestalt psychology
32. A student has to memorize a long list of nouns
for a contest. Which of the following is the best
strategy for the student to use to enhance recall
of the words?
(A) Grouping the words by semantic category
(B) Spelling each of the words
(C) Sorting the words according to length
(D) Writing out the definition of each of
the words
(E) Determining the presence or absence of
a target sound in each word
33. In evaluating achievement, the relationship
between formative evaluation and summative
evaluation is most similar to that between
(A) skills instruction and skills practice
(B) diagnostic examinations and final
examinations
(C) subjective data and objective data
(D) descriptive data and inferential data
(E) norm-referenced tests and criterion-
referenced tests
34. Which of the following treatments is most
common for attention deficit/hyperactivity
disorder?
(A) Stimulant medication
(B) Mnemonic aids
(C) Self-esteem workshops
(D) Psychotherapy
(E) Motivational training
35. A person who drove a manual-transmission car
for years finds that, when driving a car with an
automatic transmission, he often lifts his foot to
step on the clutch. This driver is experiencing
(A) parallel distributed processing
(B) an articulatory loop
(C) positive transfer
(D) proactive interference
(E) retroactive interference
36. A parent complains that 40 percent of the
questions on a classroom test were taken from
4 pages of the 70 pages covered in the material
assigned in the test. The parent is questioning
the tests
(A) internal-retest reliability
(B) test-retest reliability
(C) split-halves reliability
(D) content validity
(E) criterion-related validity
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37. Renzullis triad for identifying giftedness is
best described as which of the following?
(A) Above-average ability, task commit-
ment, creativity
(B) Skillful processing of verbal information,
artistic expression, assertiveness
(C) High I.Q. scores, academic aptitude,
practical intelligence
(D) Language fluency, analytical problem-
solving ability, ethical thinking
(E) Interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal
intelligence, logical-mathematical
intelligence
38. Behavioral theories that focus on helping
students develop self-management skills
emphasize that it is important for students to
(A) assess their competencies
(B) improve their self-concepts
(C) increase their general knowledge
(D) develop social awareness
(E) recognize clear signals that behaviors
are appropriate
39. Jacob Kounins concept of withitness refers to
which of the following teacher abilities?
(A) Maintaining awareness of everything that is
happening in the classroom
(B) Sequentially processing classroom activities
and giving feedback to students
(C) Going from one activity to another without
wasting time
(D) Focusing on one thing at a time in the
classroom to keep from becoming frustrated
(E) Identifying students academic strengths
and deficiencies
40. Which of the following would be the best
evidence that a test intended to estimate future
success in school was biased against one group
of examinees?
(A) A large mean-score difference between that
group and the rest of the examinees
(B) A large standard deviation in the test scores
of that group
(C) A low passing rate for all examinees
(D) An 80 percent passing rate for that group
(E) An underprediction of academic achieve-
ment for that group
41. Responsible adolescents are most likely to have
parents who are
(A) autocratic
(B) authoritarian
(C) authoritative
(D) permissive
(E) enmeshed
42. Which of the following is a major point in Carol
Gilligans criticism of Lawrence Kohlbergs
theory of moral development?
(A) The levels of moral reasoning in Kohlbergs
scheme are unrelated to social and
political attitudes.
(B) Mature levels of moral reasoning may differ
qualitatively between men and women.
(C) The higher levels of moral reasoning in
Kohlbergs scheme apply only to children
in the United States.
(D) The stages in Kohlbergs scheme deviate
from those in Jean Piagets stage theory.
(E) Chronological age is unrelated to maturity
of moral reasoning on Kohlbergs scale.
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43. Which of the following best illustrates
metacognition?
(A) Memorizing terms and definitions from
a textbook
(B) Monitoring ones comprehension
while reading
(C) Listening to the radio and studying at
the same time
(D) Retrieving information from short-
term memory
(E) Retrieving information from long-
term memory
44. George Millers research finding that humans
have a processing capacity of seven plus-or-minus
two items applies to which of the following
types of memory?
(A) Sensory register
(B) Explicit
(C) Implicit
(D) Short-term
(E) Long-term
45. Alice maintains a messy desk in order to gain
attention from her teacher. For Alice, the teachers
attention serves as which of the following?
(A) Negative reinforcement
(B) Positive reinforcement
(C) Extinction
(D) Primary reinforcement
(E) Shaping
46. Research investigating nature vs. nurture as
a basis of intelligence has found the highest
correlations of IQ scores between which of
the following?
(A) Dizygotic twins raised together
(B) Nontwin siblings raised together
(C) Nontwin siblings raised apart
(D) Monozygotic twins raised together
(E) Monozygotic twins raised apart
47. Marys score on an achievement test is 75. The
normative data show an overall test mean of 50
and a standard deviation of 10. This information
indicates that Marys z score equivalent is
(A) 2.5
(B) 0.53
(C) +0.53
(D) +1.3
(E) +2.5
48. A teacher informs parents that their child has
earned a stanine score of 5. The teacher is
actually saying that the students test score
(A) is below average
(B) is average
(C) is above average
(D) indicates giftedness
(E) indicates a disability
Questions 49 50 refer to the following information.
Jodie, who is in the ninth grade, took a test that
measured her ability in mathematics. The test
consisted of 50 multiple-choice questions and had a
completion time of two hours. It was scored from
zero to 50 points, with a mean of 27, a mode of 26,
and a median of 25. Jodies score represented her
actual knowledge of mathematics and did not
provide any information about how she compared
with other students who had taken the same test.
49. The test that Jodie took is best characterized as
(A) a portfolio assessment
(B) an intelligence (IQ) test
(C) a development profile
(D) a norm-referenced test
(E) a criterion-referenced test
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50. An examination of the scores of all of the
students who took the test would reveal that the
score most often made was
(A) 15
(B) 25
(C) 26
(D) 27
(E) 50
51. A teacher rewards students for every fifth
question they get right in class. Which of the
following is a schedule of reinforcement that the
teacher is using?
(A) Fixed interval
(B) Fixed ratio
(C) Variable interval
(D) Extinction
(E) Differential
52. Jos cannot find his favorite toy. When his
father talks with him about it and encourages
Jos to think about where he last used it, Jos
suddenly remembers the toys location. Joss
thinking is thus aided by the conversation with
his father. This is an example of a theory of
cognitive development formulated by
(A) Jean Piaget
(B) Lev Vygotsky
(C) Noam Chomsky
(D) Carol Gilligan
(E) Lawrence Kohlberg
53. Paul is 14 years old, has recently broken up with
his girlfriend of three weeks, and believes that
no one can understand the pain he is feeling.
According to David Elkind, Paul is displaying
(A) the imaginary audience
(B) metacognition
(C) a personal fable
(D) postformal thought
(E) symbolic thought
54. Research on the use of rewards generally
indicates that if a teacher continuously rewards
students with candy for writing creative stories,
the students
(A) writing abilities will keep improving
(B) writing abilities will get worse over time
(C) writing will not in any way be affected
(D) interest in writing will lessen over time
(E) interest in writing will increase over time
55. Mary enjoys reading, primarily because her
father gives her a dollar for each book she reads.
Marys motivational orientation for reading is
most accurately described as
(A) mastery oriented
(B) goal oriented
(C) intrinsic
(D) extrinsic
(E) egocentric
56. Which of the following is a motivational theory
in which students attempt to explain the causes
of their successes and failures?
(A) Cognitive-behavioral theory
(B) Hierarchy of needs
(C) Reward theory
(D) Attributional theory
(E) Achievement motivation
57. A students score at the 75th percentile indicates
that the student
(A) correctly answered 75 percent of the exam
(B) correctly answered 75 questions on
the exam
(C) scored worse than 75 percent of the
test takers
(D) scored better than 75 percent of the
test takers
(E) scored better than 25 percent of the
test takers
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58. Five-year-old Billy rarely makes eye contact and
frequently self-stimulates and repeats back the
speech that he hears. Based on this information
alone, it is most likely that Billy has
(A) autistic disorder
(B) major depressive disorder
(C) attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(D) mental retardation
(E) dyslexia
59. Which of the following is most likely to
be used as an individually administered
intelligence test?
(A) Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
(B) Differential Abilities Test
(C) Scholastic Aptitude Test
(D) Graduate Record Exam
(E) Thematic Apperception Test
60. Tests such as the SAT I: Reasoning Test and the
ACT (American College Testing Program) are
which of the following types of tests?
(A) Diagnostic
(B) Intelligence
(C) Achievement
(D) Aptitude
(E) Projective
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Study Resources
Most textbooks used in college-level introduction to
educational psychology courses cover the topics in
the outline given earlier, but the approaches to
certain topics and the emphasis given to them may
differ. To prepare for the Introduction to Educational
Psychology exam, it is advisable to study one or
more college textbooks, which can be found in most
college bookstores. When selecting a textbook,
check the table of contents against the Knowledge
and Skills Required for this test.
You will find it helpful to supplement your reading
with books listed in the bibliographies that can be
found in most educational psychology textbooks.
The Internet is another resource you could explore.
Additional suggestions for preparing for CLEP exams
are given in Preparing to Take CLEP Examinations.
Answer Key
1. B
2. A
3. D
4. D
5. E
6. D
7. B
8. B
9. C
10. D
11. D
12. E
13. B
14. A
15. A
16. D
17. E
18. A
19. B
20. B
21. A
22. D
23. B
24. C
25. A
26. B
27. B
28. D
29. C
30. B
31. E
32. A
33. B
34. A
35. D
36. D
37. A
38. E
39. A
40. E
41. C
42. B
43. B
44. D
45. B
46. D
47. E
48. B
49. E
50. C
51. B
52. B
53. C
54. D
55. D
56. D
57. D
58. A
59. A
60. D