Levels of Understanding Assessed by Multiple Choice Questions

During the 1948 convention of the American Psychological Association, a group of educational
psychologists decided it would be useful to classify different levels of understanding that
students can achieve in a course. In 1956, after extensive research on educational goals, the
group published their findings in a book edited by Harvard professor Benjamin S. Bloom.
Bloom's book lists six levels of intellectual understanding, summarized in the chart below.

Label for Level of

Nature of Understanding in the Level
Understanding
Knowledge Recognizing and recalling information, including

 dates, events, persons, places

 terms, definitions
 basic facts, principles, theories
 methods and procedures.

Comprehension Understanding the meaning of information, including

 restating in your own words

 translating from one form to another (e.g., numbers into words)
 interpreting, explaining, summarizing

Application Applying general rules, methods, or principles to a new, specific

situation, including

 classifying something as a specific example of a general principle

 using an appropriate formula to solve a problem

Analysis Identifying the organization and patterns within a system by

identifying its component parts and the relationships among the
components.
Synthesis Discovering or creating new connections, generalizations, patterns,
or perspectives.
Evaluation Using evidence and reasoned argument to judge how well a
proposal would accomplish a particular purpose.

(Adapted from: Bloom, B.S. (Ed.) (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The
classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York ; Toronto:
Longmans, Green.)
Because PSY 002 is Penn State's basic, introductory course in psychology, I expect students to
achieve primarily the first three levels of understanding in the course. Consequently, almost all
of the multiple choice questions in our exams aim to assess those first three levels of
understanding. I expect more of the three higher levels--analysis, synthesis, and evaluation--in
my advanced 200- and 400-level courses. In those courses I usually assess understanding with
projects, essay questions, or papers rather than with multiple-choice questions. You will
probably find that your other instructors tend to grade introductory and upper-level courses
differently.

Examples of Knowledge, Comprehension, and Application Questions

(These are the same sample questions that appear on the review of the first exam.)
Examples of Multiple-Choice Questions for Basic Knowledge

1. Which of the following is one of the major approaches to psychology?

a. psychoanalysis
b. structuralism
c. psychiatry
d. New Age Movement

The textbook describes six major approaches to psychology on

pages WIP5-WIP10: behavioral, psychoanalytic, humanistic,
cognitive, neurobiological, and sociocultural. This was also
covered in the class lecture on Modern perspectives in
psychology. Structuralism is an older approach that died out
Correct answer: A completely. I did not cover it in class; it is described on pages
WIP4-WIP5. Psychiatry is a specific branch of medicine, not a
major approach to psychology. The New Age Movement, which I
did not cover, is described on page WIP12 as a
pseudopsychology.

2. Sensation, perception, and memory are of particular

interest to which group of contemporary psychologists?

a. psychoanalysts
b. behaviorists
c. humanistic psychologists
d. cognitive psychologists

Areas of specialization in psychology are

described on pages WIP15-WIP17 of the
Correct answer: D
textbook. Sensation, perception and memory are
described in the textbook as topics that involve
 pure (that is, basic) experimental research (page
WIP16). I talked about these areas in our class
on Psychology's careers and areas of
specialization. I was more specific than the
textbook in my lecture, describing these three
areas as part of the field of cognition.

Examples of Multiple-Choice Questions for Comprehension

2. Using operational definitions answers which question?

a. who
b. why
c. what
d. how

To answer this question correctly, you have to

understand two concepts: (1) the What-How-Why
questions posed by scientists (Who is not one of
the questions, so answer (a) can be eliminated);
and
(2) what we mean by an operational definition.
An operational definitions (Lecture on
the Experimental method is psychology) include
objective descriptions of the independent variable
(What happened to the subjects) and dependent
Correct answer: C
variable (What the subjects did) in an experiment,
so (c) "what" is the correct answers. The question
of how things came about concerns explaining
what was observed by identifying the immediate
causes. Identifying immediate causes is the goal
of experiments. Why questions concern a deeper
level of explanation through theories of how the
distant past has affected the present. The What,
How, and Why of psychology were covered in
the first lecture of the course.

2. Why did John B. Watson reject the structuralist study of mental events?

a. He believed that structuralism relied too heavily on scientific methods.

b. He rejected the concept that psychologists should study observable behavior.
c. He believed that scientists should focus on what is objectively observable.
d. He actually embraced both structuralism and functionalism.
 Both the textbook (page WIP5-6) and Lecture 2
(History of basic and applied psychology),
emphasize that Watson thought he could make
psychology more scientific by restricting itself to
what was objectively observable by several
persons, that is, observable stimuli in the
environment and the observable behaviors that
Correct answer: C are triggered by the stimuli. Comprehending an
issue means understanding the main points. For
this question, you would hopefully not be
distracted by the technical terms "structuralism"
and "functionalism" (which I did not even talk
about in class) but target right in on Watson's
main point--that in his opinion a scientific
psychology must restrict itself to observables.

Examples of Multiple-Choice Questions for Application

1. Explaining a student's poor performance on an exam to the unfair

difficulty level of the questions refers to what kind of cause?

a. immediate, external cause

b. immediate, internal cause
c. developmental cause
d. necessary and sufficient cause
e. weak cause

I talked about different types of causes of

behavior on the first day of class. There really is
such a concept as a necessary and sufficient
cause, but I didn't talk about this in class and it
doesn't apply to this example. Any cause outside
of a person is an external cause, and the difficulty
Correct answer: A
level of the test is a property of the test. Possible
internal causes for poor performance might have
been lack of motivation to study, low intelligence,
or sleepiness. Developmental causes refer to
history, which is not mentioned here. I never
mentioned weak causes.
2. A researcher shows erotic films to one group of subjects and violent films to another group of
subjects. The researcher then assesses the cooperativeness of each group of subjects. The
independent variable in this study is

a. the level of cooperativeness.

b. the type of film seen.
c. the level of sexual arousal in subjects.
d. the level of aggressiveness in subjects.

The independent variable describes how the

groups of subjects in an experiment are treated
differently by the experimenter (see textbook,
page MET-16 or your notes for the lecture on
the Experimental method in psychology). In this
example, the difference is in the type of film they
Correct answer: B
were shown. The films might result in differences
in (c) sexual arousal or (d) aggressiveness, but
these were not even studied by the researcher.
Option
(a) cooperativeness represents the dependent
variable in the study.

General Hints for Approaching Multiple Choice Tests

1. Understand that there is always one clearly best answer. My goal is not to
trick students or require you to make difficult judgments about two options
that are nearly equally correct. My goal is to design questions that students
who understand will answer correctly and students who do not understand
will answer incorrectly.
2. I never provide two options that are nearly equally correct unless I provide a
choice such as (e) a and b above, if both (a) and (b) are correct. I don't like to
use options such as "a and b above," "all of the above," or "none of the above"
very often, but I will once in a while. So make sure you read all of the choices
before answering.
3. You are wise to go back over your answers to verify that you have answered
the questions correctly. However, you should NOT change an answer unless
you are almost absolutely certain that you either misread the question or
options or overlooked one of the options. Research has shown that if you are
 just plain unsure about a question, your first instinct is most often correct so
that changing your answer is not a good strategy.
4. Don't read unnecessary complications into the questions. There are no hidden
meanings in the wordings of my questions. I use college-level vocabulary
words, but the meanings of the questions are meant to be plain and
straightforward.
5. If a question really stumps you, skip it and go back to it when you have gone
through all of the questions. But don't forget to go back and put
down something for every question. A blank answer is always wrong, and
there is no penalty for guessing. The last thing you should do before turning in
your answer sheet is to check that you have answered every single question.
6. If the correct answer does not jump out at you right away, see if you can
eliminate some of the options as definitely wrong. It's okay to write on the
test booklet, so you can cross out options you think are incorrect.
7. Most questions will have four options, lettered (a), (b), (c), and (d); sometimes
I add a fifth option, (e). I do not have a favorite option letter that I use more
often. I do not try to make sure to use an equal number of (a)s, (b)s, etc. The
pattern of marks on your answer sheet will not spell out a satanic message. So
concentrate on the content of the questions and response options, and pay no
attention to how many times you are marking a particular letter.
8. DO make sure you choose the letter corresponding to the answer of your
choice. I feel almost as bad as the student who knew the answer was (d) but
accidentally marked (c), but there's nothing I can do about that.
9. DO follow the advice in the textbook (pages xiii-xiv) about spreading out your
review rather than cramming and about being in good physical shape through
plentiful sleep, proper diet, and exercise. Staying up all night studying is more
likely to hurt than help your performance.

Dr. Laurie A. Roades at California State University, Pomona, authored a web page on multiple
choice questions that served as a source of ideas for the layout of the page.
I also acknowledge a number of web pages as sources of information on Bloom's taxonomy of
levels of understanding. My primary source was:
Multiple Choice Questions and Bloom's Taxonomy from the University of Cape Town, South
Africa
Other pages I found useful were:
Bloom's Taxonomy from the Learning Skills Program, Counselling Services, University of
Victoria
Bloom's Taxonomy from the Distance Learning Resource Network
Judith K. Welch's page on Bloom's Taxonomy from the University of Central Florida
Günter Krumme's page on Bloom's Taxonomy from the University of Washington

John A. Johnson
Last modified 08-26-2003