Download S01 - Preparing for the EPPP and PPLE

How to Prepare for the EPPP
and PPLE
Learning Objectives
Samuel Knapp, Ed.D., ABPP
Director of Professional Affairs
1. Describe the EPPP and PPLE
Molly Haas Cowan, Psy.D.
Chair-elect, PPA Ethics Committee
2. Identify strategies to help prospective
psychologists prepare for and do well with
the EPPP and PPLE

The EPPP
Facts about EPPP
Which of the following statements about the
EPPP are true? It

a. is given in all 50 states and all 10 Canadian
provinces
b. consists of 220 multiple choice questions
c. Is designed to measure content knowledge in
psychology
d. All of the above*
Which is TRUE about the EPPP:
A. The nationwide pass score is 77%
B. Clinical/counseling/school graduates have an
equal chance of passing, although Ph.D. students
(85%) tend to do better than Psy.D. students (70%)
C. Taking the exam within 5 years of graduation
increases the pass rate
D. all of the above*
Facts about EPPP-2
Facts about EPPP- 3
Which is TRUE of the EPPP:
Which is TRUE about the EPPP?
A. Masters applicants have a 54% pass rate
B. Non-first time doctoral applicants have a 47%
pass rate
C. First time doctoral applicants have a 82% pass
rate
D. Research mixed on influence of gender on pass
rate
E. All of the above*
A. School pass rates are on the ASPPB website
B. A few schools (none in PA) account for a large
percentage of failures; some with pass rates close
to 50%
C. A few schools, including some in PA, have a
100% pass rate
D. All of the above*
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Study for EPPP
Less than 100 hours
100-199 hours
200-299 hours
300-399 hours
400 or more hours
Study for EPPP-2
66%
79%
81%
79%
69%
Mean hours studied? Not reported but
“eyeball” of data suggests 250 hours
Methods of preparation

Commercial print, audio tape
or on-line
Commercial in person
Individual study
Informal group sessions
80-81%
69%
80%
83%
Conclusions
Conclusions- 2
Take it as soon after finishing your
doctorate as possible
No definitive conclusions about the
optimal method of study.
Expect to spend an average of
250 hours of study (this may vary)
But, develop your goal should be to
establish some metric to assess
progress
EPPP
What do we have to learn?
How do we go about learning
this?
EPPP What Do We Have to
Learn?
Content developed through
extensive practice analysis
based on surveys of US and
Canadian psychologists every
10 years (last one finished in
2010).
2
Eight Domains of the EPPP
More Specificity
Biological basis of behavior- 12%
Cognitive-affective basis of behavior- 13%
Social and cultural basis of behavior- 12%
Growth and lifespan development- 12%
Assessment and Diagnosis- 14%
Treatment, intervention, etc. 14%
Research methods and statistics- 8%
Ethical/legal/professional issues 15%
ASPPB also publishes
“test specifications/summary of
EPPP content areas”
Content Area Specifications
Using Content Specifications
For example, under cognitive-affective basis
of behavior, one specification states
These 79 content
specifications can be used as
the framework around which
you can focus your study
“Major theories and models of memory
(e.g., multiple memory systems, expectancy
theory, constructivist theory, levels of
processing) and their application (e.g., use
of mnemonics)”
How to Study for the EPPP
Types of Memory
What do we know
about effective study
in the first place?
Unlike declarative memory, episodic
memory (or memory of daily events)
A. Requires great effort
b. Decays very quickly
c. Includes only 5 to 9 items
d. Occurs fast and easily
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Episodic memories
Type of Memory Required
D; episodic memories occur
without effort and involve
theoretically unlimited
amounts of information
storage
What type of memory is required for the
EPPP?
What type of memory is
required?
When is learning more
effective?
b. Multiple choice tests
measure recognition memory?
Learning is more effective if students
a. recall
b. recognition
c. procedural
d. implicit
a. Distribute their studying over a few sessions of
long duration
b. Multi-task while studying
c. Add gingko to their diet to facilitate memory
d. Distribute their studying over many sessions
with smaller amounts of time
When is learning more
effective?
Strategies to help facilitate
recall
D: Learning is more effective is
the students engage in distributed
practice (i.e., have many relatively
short sessions of studying)
Strategies to help facilitate recall include
a. Mnemonics
b. Visual imagery
c. self-referencing
d. All of the above
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Strategies that facilitate
learning
Self-Referencing
D;
all of the above
mnemonics, visual imagery, and
self-referencing all facilitate
learning
As applied to memory, self-referencing is a
technique that
Self-Referencing
Self-Referencing- 2
b. self-referencing means that the learners
actively try to link the content being learned
to their personal lives
You might say that selfreferencing “tricks” the brain into
making declarative knowledge
into episodic knowledge, which is
automatic, easy to remember, and
theoretically unlimited
For example, a student learning Erikson’s
stages of life may try to link one of the
stages to their own life, or the lives of their
parents, grandparents, children, etc.
a. Focuses on one’s emotions while
learning
b. Links the content to one’s personal life
c. Ignores the feelings of others
d. All of the above
Levels of Processing
Levels of Processing
While studying for the EPPP, Molly went
through the materials and tried to create
situations where she could apply the
information to her practice as a future
psychologist. This is called
a. self-referencing
b. The fundamental attribution error
c. Informational social influence
d. The self-serving bias
A; self-referencing
Self-referencing tries to capitalize
on the ease of forming episodic
memories by linking them to
declarative memories.
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Craik and Lockhart
Craik and Lockhart
According to Craik and Lockhart, memories
are put into long term storage more easily
when they are linked with existing
knowledge. This process is called
a. Availability heuristics
b. Levels of processing
c. Practical intelligence
d. Analytical intelligence

Eric Kandell
Kandell
Linda created a mental picture of dendrites
growing in a sea snail after repeating
exposures to a classical conditioning
experiment. She is likely using visual
imagery to remember the theory of
a. Long term potentiation
b. split-brain processing
c. Fight or flight syndrome
d. Operant conditioning
A; long term potentiation
Sarah Bellum
Sarah Bellum
Samantha created a mental picture in which she
saw a talented woman named Sarah Bellum doing
an intricate and delicate dance. It is intended to
help her remember that the cerebellum is involved
in fine motor coordination. This strategy exemplifies
c visual imagery
b levels of processing
Through studying the sea snail
(aplysia), Kandell and colleagues saw
the dendrites and synapses grew in
certain neurons after learning took
place. This process is called long-term
potentiation.
a. self-referencing
b. all-or-nothing principle
c. Visual imagery
d. Maintenance rehearsal
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Organization Methods
Enhance Learning
TRUE OR FALSE
Ways to Remember
/
I
\
/
I
\
/
I
\
Organization Elaboration Imagery
One limitation of true and false questions is
that, unless the correct answer is given
quickly, students may assume that the false
response is, in fact, true.
TRUE OR FALSE
Fill-in-the-Blank
TRUE, as an educational
method it is important to
provide the correct answer
quickly.
Fill-in-the-blank test questions measure a
student’s ________.
TRUE
a.
b.
c.
d.
FALSE
A. recognition
B. recall
C. thinking skills
D. all of the above
Fill-in-the-Blank
Memory
Fill-in-the-blank questions
(unless the previous question
which was really a multiple
choice question) measure
recall.
Leon repeated over and over again that “the
pituitary gland is the master gland.” This is
an example of
a. Stages of change
b. Maintenance rehearsal
c. False memory syndrome
d. Elaborative rehearsal
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Memory
B
maintenance rehearsal
What Have We Learned So
Far?
Review
Periodic reviews of what you have learned
can be helpful
How Do We Study for the
EPPP?
Effective strategies connect
information to previous knowledge
(involve multiple connections with
previous knowledge), use visual
imagery or mnemonics
What are effective
attitudes to have about
studying?
Attitudes
Attitudes
According to Bandura, a student who
believes that she has the ability to pass the
EPPP if she studies is showing
c. self-efficacy
a. Observational learning
b. Reciprocal determinism
c. Self-efficacy
d. Vicarious reinforcement
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Dweck
Dweck
Madison thinks, “either I am smart and know the
stuff OR I am not smart,” so she studies very little
for the EPPP. Karen thinks, “I know I can make
myself smarter by studying hard.” Madison is
showing a ____ model of intelligence and Karen is
showing a _____ theory of intelligence.
a. analytic, practical
b. incremental, entity
c. fluid, malleable
d. entity, incremental
d; entity and incremental theories of
intelligence are “folk theories” or implicit
theories that learners and teachers have
about intelligence. Entity theories hold that
intelligence is fixed and no amount of effort
is going to change that; increment theories
hold that intelligence is malleable and can
change through effort
Seligman
Seligman
When it came time to take the EPPP, Jen
believed that she could not pass it, even if
she studied very hard. Seligman might
interpret Jen’s behavior as
b. Learned helplessness
a. The fundamental attribution error
b. Learning helplessness
c. repression
d. Motivated forgetting
Anxiety
Anxiety
Carla was very very anxious about the
EPPP; Nancy was nonchalant about taking
it; Seth was slightly nervous about it. What
theory explains who is likely to do the best
on the EPPP?
a. Yerkes-Dodgson
b. James-Lange
c. Cannon-Bard
d. Singer/Schacter
A Yerkes-Dodgson
This theory holds that a moderate
amount of anxiety is optimal for
facilitating performance
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Review
Often it is helpful to periodically review what
you have learned
What Have We Learned?
If intelligence is defied as cognitive
abilities that help us adapt to the
environment, then intelligence is
malleable (incremental theory)
Self-efficacy improves motivation and
effort; excess anxiety impaired
performance
Monitoring Progress
Monitoring Progress
How do we monitor
progress (determine how
well we are doing in
mastering the content)?
While studying for the EPPP, Barry would
periodically take practice tests to see how
he was progressing. Monitoring one’s
progress is known as ______.
a. meta cognitive skills
b. Distributive practice
c. Partial reinforcement
d. Precontemplative stage
Monitoring Progress
Goal Setting
A. meta cognitive skills, which
means a skill used to evaluate the
methods that one uses
According to Bandura, effective goals are
those that are
a. specific
b. short-term
c. challenging
d. All of the above
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Effective Goal Setting
How to Study
D Effective goals should be short-term (e.g.,
in the next two weeks, I will spend 15 hours
studying);
Specific (I will study the material on the
biological basis of behavior); and
Challenging (at the end of two weeks, I will
get 80% correct on the sample test)
Effective learning involves
How to Study-2
Suggestion 1
D all of the above
Get a high quality introduction to
psychology text (recent, thick), such as
Meyers & DeWall; Wade & Tavris; or King.
a. Using effective learning strategies such as
visualization, self-referencing, etc.
b. Adopting an incremental theory of intelligence
c. Setting specific, short-term and challenging goals
d. All of the above
Buy workbook with sample tests
Get the ASPPB Informal packet (with
domains and knowledge statements)
Suggestion-2
Suggestion 3
Work in a team or a group, or with a partner
to get (and give)
Maximize self-referencing strategies
For example, knowledge statement 1 (under
biological basis of behavior) includes
information on dementias.
1.
2.
3.
feedback on progress
feedback of method of learning
emotional support and encouragement
Imagine you are treating a family where a
member has dementia and you need to
explain basic information about it.
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Suggestion 3 - expanded
You can rehearse explaining the
concept to the family, create a visual
display, or imagine you are giving a
public presentation on the topic
All of these involve elaborate
rehearsal
Suggestion 3- Even even
more expanded
By seeing the relevance to your career
goals and your work, it should increase your
internal motivation to study.
You study because it helps fulfill your
personal goals (to be helpful and effective);
not just an external goal of getting licensed
Suggestion 3- expanded
even more
Do this, as much as possible, with
every fact or item you learn.
Admittedly, some of these exercises
may be a stretch (like the slide before
on “Sarah Bellum”)
Suggestion Four
Adopt an incremental
attitude
Monitor your progress
Suggestion 5
PPLE
Learn how to take the “tricky”
multiple choice questions
asked on the EPPP.
Get the PPA study guide
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Recap Suggestions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Good Luck
Get good text and workbooks
Work in a group- support each other
Use effective self-referencing study
strategies
Adopt an incremental approach, monitor
progress
Learn “tricky” question format of EPPP
Get PPA study guide on PPLE
References
ASPPB. (2014). ASPPB’s Information for Candidates. Atlanta, GA: ASPPB.
DeMers, S. (2009). Understanding the purpose, strengths, and limitations of
the EPPP: A response to Sharpless and Barber Professional
Psychology: Research & Practice, 40, 348-353.
Schaffer, J., Rodolfa, E., Owen, J., Lipkins, R., Webb, C., & Horn, J. (2012).
The Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology : New
data-practical implications. Training and Education in Professional
Psychology, 6, 1-7.
Sharpless, B. A., & Barber, J. P. (2013).Predictors of program performance on
the Examination for the Professional Practice of Psychology
(EPPP). Professional Psychology: Research & Practice, 44, 208-217.
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