Role of Heredity and Environment — Quiz

Q1. Whose definition of heredity reads, 'Heredity is the totality of biologically transmitted factors that influence the development of an individual'?

• A. F.L. Ruch
• B. Peterson
• C. Douglas and Holland
• D. Anastasi

Q2. The line 'a tiger gives birth only to a tiger cub, not to a kitten' illustrates which idea?

• A. Children inherit only physical traits from parents
• B. Cultural learning decides the child's biological form
• C. Environment alone shapes the child's species identity
• D. Heredity transmits species-specific characteristics from one generation to the next

Q3. 'Environment is the aggregate of all external forces, conditions and influences that affect the life, nature, behaviour, growth and maturity of living things.' This definition belongs to

• A. Anastasi
• B. Gilbert
• C. Douglas and Holland
• D. Peterson

Q4. Suman, a Class 5 teacher in Jaipur, wants to enrich her students' mental environment. Which set of activities best fits the recommendation?

• A. Daily handwriting drill and silent reading only
• B. Replacing all co-curricular periods with extra Maths
• C. Increasing the daily homework load by one hour
• D. Debates, museum visits, clubs and symposia alongside the regular curriculum

Q5. Why is a favourable environment necessary even for a child born with strong native abilities?

• A. Because heredity by itself produces full development without any environment
• B. Because environment is the only source of intelligence in a child
• C. Because inherited capacities need stimulation and opportunity to develop into actual abilities
• D. Because environment replaces the role of heredity after the age of five

Q6. Fraternal twins differ from identical twins primarily because they

• A. develop from two separate ova and may be of different sexes
• B. always look exactly alike and share every trait
• C. develop from one ovum that splits into two
• D. are born only to first-time mothers

Q7. The twin-study correlations (identical 0.90, fraternal 0.70, siblings 0.50, parent-child 0.31, unrelated 0.30) are usually read as evidence that

• A. the closer the genetic relationship, the higher the correlation in intelligence
• B. intelligence is shaped entirely by schooling
• C. twins always score the same regardless of family
• D. parents' IQ is the strongest predictor of a child's IQ

Q8. Why do studies of identical twins reared in different families still find the twins more alike than unrelated children raised together?

• A. Because environment has no effect at all on the development of intelligence
• B. Because schools assign identical twins the same teacher
• C. Because the twins secretly remain in contact through life
• D. Because identical twins share the same heredity, and that shared heredity continues to influence their similarities

Q9. What did Freeman's study of children moved from a poor to a good environment, finally demonstrate?

• A. Environment can lift mental rating by about 10 points on Binet's scale
• B. Intelligence cannot change after birth
• C. Heredity alone determines mental rating
• D. Children's IQ drops in a richer environment

Q10. A child of illiterate parents, raised in a household where ten languages are spoken, can speak all ten by the age of ten. This kind of example is cited mainly to show that

• A. language ability is entirely inborn
• B. parents' literacy decides a child's language ability
• C. environment plays a powerful role in shaping abilities such as language
• D. children of illiterate parents always outperform others

Q11. According to Woodworth, the role of heredity and environment in development is

• A. Heredity alone is essential; environment is decorative
• B. Environment alone is essential; heredity is negligible
• C. Both heredity and environment are equally essential
• D. Neither heredity nor environment matters after age six

Q12. Ross writes H X E X T = DL with multiplication, not addition, signs. The choice of the multiplication sign is meant to convey that

• A. heredity and environment are added equally
• B. any two of the three factors are sufficient on their own
• C. time is more important than heredity or environment
• D. if any one of heredity, environment or time is zero, development is zero

Q13. Landis's view on how heredity and environment work together is best summarised as

• A. Heredity gives the basic capacities and environment provides the opportunities to realise them
• B. Heredity supplies opportunities and environment supplies the capacities
• C. Heredity and environment work in alternate years of a child's life
• D. Heredity controls behaviour, environment controls genes

Q14. Ravi, a Class 4 teacher in rural Bihar, finds that his students differ widely in interest and aptitude. The educational implications would advise him to

• A. use one fixed teaching method for the whole class throughout the year
• B. wait for the slower students to drop out before changing methods
• C. rank students openly and teach only the top group
• D. adopt different teaching methods suited to different interests and aptitudes

Q15. Sorenson argues that knowledge of a learner's heredity and environment is essential for the teacher because

• A. it helps the teacher understand why learners differ and plan teaching accordingly
• B. it tells the teacher which child should be rejected from school
• C. it allows the teacher to predict a child's lifelong income
• D. it makes the curriculum unnecessary