Question Bank (2 mark questions)

1. What is the Law of Effect of Thorndike?

Law of Effect of Thorndike- When a modifiable connection between

stimulus and response is made and is accompanied or followed by a
satisfying state of affairs, that connection’s strength is increased. When
a response is made and accompanied or followed by an annoying state
of affairs, its strength is decreased.

2. What is Operant Conditioning?

Operant Conditioning refers to a kind of learning process where a

response is made more probable or frequent by reinforcement. It helps
in the learning of operant behaviour, the behaviour that is not
necessarily associated with a known stimulus.

3. What is the difference between Recall and Recognition?

Recognition is a much easier and simpler psychological process than

recall. Recognition requires only the awareness of having known an
object or situation while Recall is a task of retrieving the previously
learnt experience.

4. Define Educational Psychology

Educational Psychology is the scientific study of the behaviour of the

learner in relation to his educational environment. According to Crow
and Crow (1973), Educational psychology describes and explains the
learning experiences of an individual from birth through old age.

5. Give the various stages of cognitive development as proposed by

Jean Piaget
The various stages of development proposed by Jean Piaget are-
Sensory -motor stage (0-2), Pre- Operational stage (2-7), Concrete
Operational stage (7-11) and Formal Operation stage (12-15).
6. What is Retro -active Inhibition?

In Retroactive Inhibition, the acquisition of new learning works

backward to impair the retention of the previously learnt material.
Example: A second list of words, formulae or equation may impair the
retention of a first list.

7. What is meant by Insight?

Insight is the understanding of the specific cause and effect within a

specific context. It can be related to a piece of information, the act or
result of understanding the inner nature of things, an introspection and
the power of acute observation and understanding the cause and effect.

8. What are Performance tests?

Performance tests are an assessment of one’s performance on tests

involving intellectual abilities. These tests are most useful in cases of
individuals who have language handicaps, are mentally retarded or
culturally deprived individuals.

9. Define Emotion

Emotion is a feeling or affective experience, that is characterized by

some physiological changes that generally lead them to perform some
type of behavioural act.

10. What do you mean by ‘memory span’?

Memory span is the number of things someone can remember after
being shown a set of objects once. It includes the length of time of the
short-term memory.

11. State two causes of forgetting

The loss of memory on account of the factors of age, diseases,

biological malfunctioning of the brain and nervous system, accidents,
consumption of liquor or other intoxicating materials, etc. can some
causes of physical or organic forgetting.

12. What is Stimulus?

A Stimulus is a thing or event that evokes a specific functional reaction

in an organ or tissue.

13. Mention two major characteristics of Emotions

Emotional experiences are associated with some instincts or biological

drives.
Emotions are the product of perception.

14. What do you mean by the term ‘Gestalt’?

‘Gestalt’ is a German noun which means ‘configuration’ or more simply

an ‘organised whole’ in contrast to a collection of parts. The basic idea
is that a thing cannot be understood by the study of its constituent parts,
but only by the study of it as a totality or whole.

15. State the difference between Natural response and Conditioned

response
A Natural response is behaviour that occurs naturally due to a given
stimulus. However, a stimulus prompts a Conditioned response only
when someone has come to associate that stimulus with another.

16. What is Intelligence Quotient?

Intelligence assessed through the various intelligence tests is

expressed in terms Intelligence Quotient or I.Q. It is the ratio of mental
age and chronological age, which was then multiplied by 100.

17. Why is Psychology called a science of behaviour?

From the nineteenth century onwards, with the advent of the modern
era of scientific investigation and thought, psychology began to be
defined in terms of the study of behaviour. William McDougall, a British
psychologist, in his book Physiological Psychology published in 1905
stated that Psychology may be best and most comprehensively defined
as the positive science of the conduct of living creatures.

18. What is Mental Age?

The concept of Mental Age was earlier introduced by French

psychologist Alfred Binet. It was based on the principle of the normal
distribution of intelligence at the majority of children of a particular age
are of normal intelligence and they have a mental age approximating
that age.

19. Write the Law of Exercise of Thorndike

The law has two sub - parts: The Law of Use and The Law of Disuse
The law of use: When a modifiable connection is made between a
situation and response, that connection’s strength is, other things being
equal, increased.
The law of disuse: When a modifiable connection is not made between
a situation and response, during a length of time, that connection’s
strength is decreased.

20. Mention any two ways of improving memory

The two ways in which we can improve memory are-

·​ ​Following the principles of association may facilitate learning
and recall.
·​ ​The use of repetition and practice.

21. What is the meaning of the term ‘Operant’?

An Operant is a set of acts that constitutes some action of an organism.

Hence, the process of operant conditioning may start with the
responses as they occur naturally or at random.

22. Point out any two uses of Intelligence tests

·​ ​The Intelligence tests can be used to provide admission to a

special educational programme or course of instruction.
·​ ​It helps in identification of gifted students who can be offered
scholarships.

23. Who coined the term I.Q.?

The term I.Q. was first coined by the German psychologist, William
Stern in 1914.

24. Write Thorndike’s Law of Readiness

The law of Readiness: When any conduction unit is ready to conduct,
for it to do so is satisfying. When any conduction unit is not in readiness
to conduct, for it to conduct is annoying.

25. What is cognitive development?

The growth and development of the mental abilities and capacities

which helps an individual to adjust his behaviour to the everchanging
environmental conditions or to enable him to accomplish a task that
needs complex cognitive abilities is referred to as cognitive
development.

26. Give two examples of Performance test

The two examples of Performance test are- Alexander’s Battery of

Performance tests and The Pinter- Patterson scale.

27. Why is Ebbinghaus famous?

Ebbinghaus is famous for his curve of forgetting. He concluded that the

amount of learnt material forgotten depends upon the time lapsed after
learning. He also propagates that the rate of learning is very rapid at
first but then it gradually diminishes proportionally as the interval
lengthens.

28. Name Thorndike’s major laws of learning

Thorndike’s major laws of learning are-

·​ ​The Law of Readiness
·​ ​The Law of Effect
·​ ​The Law of Exercise- The two sub-parts of the law of exercise
are: The law of Use and The Law of Disuse
29. Is intelligence innate? – Give reasons

Intelligence is innate as there have been a number of attempts on the

part of psychologists to weigh the relative importance of nature and
nurture. The conclusion of their studies reveals that intelligence is the
product of heredity and environment and the intellectual growth of an
individual is dependent equally on both the factors.

30. What is Intelligence?

According to David Wechsler, Intelligence is the aggregate or global

capacity of an individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to
deal effectively with his environment.

31. Define Learning

According to Crow and Crow, ‘Learning is the acquisition of habits,

knowledge and attitude. It involves new ways of doing things and it
operates in an individual’s attempts to overcome obstacles or to adjust
to new situation. It represents progressive changes in behaviour. It
enables him to satisfy interests to attain goals.’

32. What is the difference between the Classical and the Operant
Conditioning theory?

The Classical conditioning theory helps in the learning of respondent

behaviour while the Operant Conditioning theory helps in the learning of
operant behaviour.
The Classical conditioning is also called type S conditioning to
emphasize the importance of the stimulus in eliciting desired response.
The Operant conditioning theory is the type R conditioning because of
its emphasis on the response.
33.Why is the theory of Insight different from all the other learning
theories?

The theory of Insight implied a more deliberate and conscious effort of

the individual rather than a product of mere habit formation or a
stimulus response machine-like mechanism. According to the Gestalt
psychologists, in a learning process, the learner does not merely
receive or make responses to the stimuli, but definitely processes, i.e.,
interacts with and does something about what he receives and his
response is determined by that processing.

34.What is Memory?

Ryburn (1956) endorses memory as:

The power that we have to ‘store’ our experiences, and to bring them
into the field of consciousness some time after the experiences have
occurred, is termed Memory.

35.Give two ways in which educational psychology will be able to solve

classroom problems

Educational psychology covers psychological ways and means of

improving all aspects of the teaching- learning process. It helps in
knowing the learner, his strengths and limitations to acquire the
knowledge being provided.
It suggests suitable methods and techniques for providing the desired
learning experience.

36.How are learning and educational psychology related?

Educational psychology is the science of education which mainly deals

with the problems of teaching and learning and helps the teacher in his
task of modifying the learner’s behaviour and bringing about an
all-round development of his personality.

37.What is the meaning of education in its narrow sense?

Education, in the narrow sense, is regarded as acquisition of

knowledge. It propagates that the mind of the child is believed to be
empty and it is filled with knowledge from the accumulated store- house
of knowledge of the teacher or the parent or an elderly member of the
community.

38. What is the meaning of education in its broader sense?

Education in the wider sense is a life-long process. It includes all the

influences which act upon an individual during his passage from the
cradle to the grave. Thus, education becomes the sum-total of all
experiences that the child receives.

39. Why is educational psychology an applied science?

Psychology as a science helps us to understand, control and predict

behaviour. Educational psychology thus helps to carry out the
processes and produce the results of education. It equips the teacher
by supplying the essential scientific skills, technological expertise and
advice in moulding and shaping the behaviour of his students.

40. Mention briefly the scope of educational psychology

Educational psychology is applied to the educative process from birth to

death of an individual. The scope of educational psychology is centred
around the learner, the learning process and the learning situation.

41. Define Psychology

N.L. Munn (1967) says, ‘Psychology is a science and the properly
trained psychologist is a scientist or at least a practitioner who uses
scientific methods and information resulting from scientific
investigation.’