Let's start with three premises and a conclusion:
There are three basic types of multiple choice questions. The first type of question, with which you are probably most familiar from high school, assesses straightforward, factual material taken directly from the text and lecture. It taps into what is called "recognition memory." This type of question provides the information with which you are familiar through reading and simple memorization, and then asks you to distinguish it from unfamiliar information. For example, look over the following list of names and tell me which ones are not movie stars:
If you go to the movies at all, this was probably not a challenging task. All you had to do was recognize which names "belonged" and which did not. Bringing us back to psychology, the following is a definitional question--it tells you the name of a concept and then ask you to recognize its definition.
Cognitive dissonance theory states that:
You really wouldn't have to do much work to answer this question, would you? In fact, you could answer this question correctly by simply having looked over definitions in the margins of the textbook. You certainly could answer it WITHOUT understanding cognitive dissonance theory at all, meaning that you don't have to LEARN the material to get a good score! Since they don't test understanding, you won't see many simple recognition questions on my quizzes or exams.
The second general type of multiple choice question is one that asks more of you. "Recall memory" questions make you do all the remembering yourself, and thus are more difficult to answer. For example, can you name the last five presidents of the United States? You probably have more trouble answering this question as it is phrased than if I had listed eight names and asked you to pick out the presidents. This type of question usually takes the form of a fill-in-the-blank question, or a question that paraphrases the terms used in the text. The trouble is, while simple recall questions require a deeper involvement with the material from you, they still can be answered without true understanding. In other words, they assess a necessary but not sufficient step toward true learning. As with recognition questions, I use a limited number of these questions on tests.
To tap that deeper level of your understanding I use what are often called "application questions." This type of question not only can ask if you recognize or recall the information, but also if you can explain it and put it to use. In order to answer an application question, your studying must have taken you beyond simply reading the material and memorizing it. You must also actively work with the material, asking yourself lots of questions about what you've read (with the book closed), coming up with your own examples illustrating each concept or process, differentiating between similar concepts, and so on. A good test of your level of understanding is whether or not you could teach someone else about the material without looking at a text or notes. Here are a few examples of application questions to give you an idea of what they look like:
1. A family narrowly escapes a fire in their home caused by a kerosene heater. The heater was the family's only source of heat on a very cold night. Your friend remarks that if the family had paid their heating bills this never would have happened. Your friend's comment is an example of which of the following?a. fundamental attribution error
schemata transference self-serving bias
2. Dorothy tells her husband that there is no use trying to help their son Michael learn to walk because walking is purely physically determined, while her husband argues that it is possible to create an environment that will help stimulate the child's physical development earlier than expected. Who is right?
Dorothy is right because walking is a solely a function of physical maturation.
Her husband is wrong because the environment has no effect on motor development
Dorothy is right that there are physiological limits but wrong that walking is not affected by experience
Her husband is right that the environment influences development and that the constraints of biological maturation can be almost completely erased
Recognition memory is involved in these questions because of the terms used in the answers, but the questions themselves give you unfamiliar examples to which you must apply each of the offered concepts to see if they fit. If you don't understand what's involved in the concepts, their similarities, their differences, and so on, you will have difficulty answering these questions. Put more positively, your answering the questions correctly tells me that you understand the material at a fairly sophisticated level. (Either that, or you're a very lucky guesser!)
You won't get to this deeper level of understanding by simply reading, underlining, and repeating words to yourself. It takes much more involvement. We can talk about how to get there during my office hours, or you can look over the study suggestions I offer:
Click here for study suggestions.