Passage G

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Practice Tests for the Texas Academic Skills Program Reading Test
Passage G

1	Psychologists study how organisms feel, what they do, and what they think. Psychologists find it useful, and occasionally imperative, to define their subject matter in terms of the operations they use to measure it. When they do so, they are using operational definitions. Operational definitions define concepts in terms of the procedures used to measure or create them. Let’s look at a few examples.
2	Let’s say we are interested in the conditions under which a rat turns left, rather than right, in a maze. It seems like a relatively simple matter to determine the direction a rat turns in a maze. But just what will constitute a turn? How will you measure the turn of a rat in a maze? Will sticking its nose around the corner be taken as a turn? What if it gets most of its body around the corner and then scoots back? Does the rat’s tail have to make it all the way around? As silly as it may sound, you may have to operationally define a turn in the maze by specifying just how you intend to measure it.
3	Operational definitions become particularly useful when we consider mental processes. How shall we define anxiety in a study comparing the performance of students who experience either high or low anxiety during test taking? How shall we define intelligence if we want to compare the intelligence of students who have had access to a preschool program with students who have not? Terms such as anxiety and intelligence are difficult to define precisely or in ways with which all psychologists would agree. Sometimes our only recourse is to use operational definitions and specify how we intend to measure these concepts during the course of our study. We might operationally define anxiety in terms of measurable changes in physiological processes such as blood pressure, heart rate, and sweat gland activity. We might operationally define intelligence as the score on a certain psychological test. (Gerow, Josh R., Psychology: An Introduction, 4th ed. New York: Harper, 1995, pp. 8-9)

30. Which of the following statements best expresses the overall main idea of the passage?

A. Psychologists study how organisms feel, what they do, and what they think.

B. Operational definitions become particularly useful when we consider mental processes.

C. Operational definitions define concepts in terms of the procedures used to measure or create them.

D. Let’s look at a few examples.

31. Based on this passage, which of these is a reasonable conclusion?

A. Psychologists use operational definitions in spite of evidence that these types of definitions often provide false data.

B. Only operational definitions can be the basis for a complex set of principles.

C. Operational definitions reveal absolute truths about animal behavior.

D. Psychologists do not all agree on what characterizes intelligence and other basic concepts in the field.

32. The material in paragraph 2 relates to the main idea of the overall selection by providing a(n)

A. cause.

B. example.

C. argument.

D. comparison.