Question

In a science lesson on heat, Ms. Jones explains that heat is the result of molecules moving back and forth very quickly and that gases are heated more quickly than liquids. The next day she asks her class the following four questions. Which one requires a complex cognitive process?
A) "Who can remember yesterday's discussion about heat?"
B) "What is heat?"
C) "Which one is heated more quickly—a gas or a liquid?"
D) "Why might it be cooler near the ocean on a hot summer day?"

Answer 1

Answer: D. "Why might it be cooler near the ocean on a hot summer day?"

Explanation:

COMPLEX COGNITION refers to the ability to deduce information from already given information.

If the teacher asks why it might be cooler on a hot summer day next to an ocean, she wants her students to use the knowledge that she gave them the previous day about how liquids heat up slower than gas which would mean that the ocean would take a longer time to heat up so the temperature of areas surrounding it are invariably cooler than the areas that are not.

For this reason D is the correct answer. The other options simply require that information be regurgitated as simply as it was given the day before.