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AP Psychology
Semester Final Exam Review
Prologue & Chapter 1:
1. What did Locke and Aristotle believe about the mind and knowledge?
The mind is a blank slate-all knowledge is learned through life experiences
2. What did Plato and Socrates believe about the mind and knowledge?
Knowledge is innate-you are born knowing what you will know
3. What is introspection and why did it wane in popularity? What school of psychology was involved in
introspection and associated with Titchener?
Introspection was the idea that psychologists would measure people’s feeling or thoughts on topics. It waned in
popularity b/c it was not scientific and very subjective. Titchner was involved in structuralism
4. What is the definition of psychology? What was the focus of psychology in its early years? How did
that focus change in the 1st half of the 20th century? How did it change again in the 2nd half of the 20th
century? The science of observable behavior. In the early years it focused on personal feeling. In the 1st
half of the 20th century it dealt with behavior. In the 2nd half of the 20th century and today it deals with
scientific quantitative facts (more science)
5. What are the multiple perspectives of psychology and why are there multiple perspectives of
psychology?
6. What is an operational definition and why is it important? Quantatative parameters of an experiment. It
is important so that someone can replicate an experiment
7. What is the most distinctive characteristic of the experimental method? What is some important
terminology involved in the experimental method? Proving a hypothesis
8. What is a double-blind control and when is it likely to be used/applied? When neither the experimenter
nor the subject knows who is receiving the placebo or the drug. It is used so that the results or
experiment are not compromised
9. What is a case study? An in depth look at a single person or a small group of people pertaining to a
subject.
10. What is false consensus effect? When you believe that everyone thinks/likes the same things as you
11. What is hindsight bias? “I knew it all along” feeling like you knew something after it happens when you
already know the outcome
Biopsychology/neuroscience:
12. What is the function of dendrites? Receuve neurotransmitters
13. What are the two purposes of the myelin sheath? Insult and speed up electrical impulses of a neurom
14. How is an action potential generated? Neurotransmitters, movement of ions etc
15. What did Sir Charles Sherrington discover slowed down the speed of a neural impulse/action potential?
There is a space between neurons-the synaptic gap
16. What are neurotransmitters and why are they released? chemical messengers that tell a neuron to fire
17. What is an undersupply of serotonin linked with? Clinical depression
18. What is an undersupply of Ach linked with? Altzheimers disease
19. What is an excess of dopamine linked with? Schizophrenia
20. What is ephinephrine (adrenaline)? Natural opiates
21. What is Ach? Acetylcholine
22. What nervous system transmits messages from your spinal cord/brain to muscles & glands? Peripheral
23. What are neural networks and why are they important? Groups of neurons that have the same function
that converge in “nets” in your brain. The proximity of these neurons allows for faster transmission of
messages
24. What brain scan involves the use of a radioactive form of glucose? PET
25. What brain scan shows the most detailed picture of brain structures? FMRI
26. What part of the brainstem controls breathing & heartbeat? Medulla
27. What is the “filtering unit” of the brain and which sense is NOT filtered by this structure? Thalamus.
Smell-filterered by the olfactory bulb
28. What happens if you sever a cat’s reticular formation? It will keep sleeping and not wake
up…Hypersomnia
29. Where was the damage to Phineas Gage’s brain and what was the consequence? Frontal lobe-totally
changed his personality
30. What brain structure regulates thirst and hunger? Hypothalamus
31. What language disorder results in nonsensical speech? Wernicke’s aphasia
32. What are of the brain is active when auditory hallucinations are experienced? Temporal lobe
33. What part of the brain is most important in decision-making? Frontal lobe
34. Damage to what part of the brain can result in a language disorder that involves the inability to read?
Broca’s aphasia
35. What is brain plasticity and how is it demonstrated most clearly? The ability for the brain to “pick up
the slack” for a par tof the brain that is no longer working. Example is people who have had
hemispherectomy are able to do things that would normally be done by the side of the brain that they
have had removed. This ability lessens with age
Nature v. Nurture:
36. What is the human genome? The sequence of DNA etc needed for replication/ creation of humans
37. What are nucleotides and what do their variations do? Small unites of genetic material-variations make
each person individual
38. What do we know about temperament? It is inborn
39. Why are stimulating educational experiences important at younger ages? That is when your neural
networks are being created the fastest/most so it aids in their creation
40. What do evolutionary psychologists believes about mens’ attitudes toward women and sex and vice
versa?
41. What is a role? Societies idea of what a man or a woman should do
42. What is a norm? Behavior that is a societal expectation
43. What is the difference between a gender role and gender identity? Role: What society says you should do
as a man or a woman Identity: how an individual feels about their personal male or femaleness
44. Who becomes extremely important in the lives of adolescents? Peers
45. How are genetic influences on personality traits researched best? Twin studies
Development:
46. What is the smallest unit of language? Phoneme
47. What is syntax? Order of words
48. What is semantics? Use of words
49. What are schemas? Frameworks or ideas that we have about how certain things are
50. What are the types of attachment according to Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation? Secure and
insecure attachment
51. According to Piaget children develop object permanence when? Conservation? End of Sensorimotor.
Beginning of Concrete operational
52. What is habituation? Becoming used to a stimuli
53. What is maturation readiness? Being able to perform certain functions only at a certain age due to
brains ability to handle it
54. Why is it hard for us to remember the first few years of our lives? Brian processes memories differently
55. What is the rooting reflex? If you touch a babies cheek it will suck-looking for food
56. Where are the most well-adjusted & socially competent children raised? Authoratative
57. What is the difference between primary sex characteristics and secondary sex characteristics? Primary
have to do with reproduction and secondary happen as a result of puberty and do not contribute to
reproduction
58. According to Erikson, what identity is experienced by adolescents and then young adults? What crisis is
experienced in late adulthood? Identitiy v. Role confusion Generativity v. Despair
Sensation & Perception:
59. What is Weber’s Law? People will notice differences between two things based on the percent
difference between them.
60. What is sensory adaptation? When you become accustomed to something and fail to notice it
61. Why do your eyes constantly quiver? Because light/world is constantly changing and your eyes need to
be able to “get” those differences
62. What is transduction? Changing of chemical or wave information into one of your senses
63. What are feature detectors? Specialized neurons that have a certain role in what we see (texture, color
etc)
64. What skin sense has specialized receptor cells? temperature
65. Explain the opponent-process theory. Three independent receptor types which all have opposing pairs:
white and black, blue and yellow, and red and green for sight
66. What is the cocktail party effect? Unconsiously process all that is going on at a party and can “under
hypnosis” recall all that was said
67. What do connectedness & closure illustrate about our perceptions? Sight is not totally about our eyessome of it is connected to our brains
68. What is illustrated when you hold two index fingers in front of your eyes and create a finger sausage?
Retinal disparity
69. How are Kant and Locke different?
70. What clue is most essential to the perception of depth in the visual cliff? All animals will not cross the
cliff-depth perception is inborn
71. What is shape constancy? Size constancy? Color constancy?
72. Explain the Ponzo illusion. Train tracks appearing to recede in the distance-horizontal lines on tracks
closer to you appear longer than those farther away although they are the same size
73. What do we know about daydreams and violent persons? They have more frequent and vivid daydreams
74. What are hallucinations? Brain response when there is no stimulii
Consciousness:
75. Why is REM called “paradoxical sleep?” Mind is at its most active but body totally paralyzed
76. What is a circadian rhythm? Sleep/wake cycle
77. What was Sigmund Freud’s theory on dreams? Royal road to the unconscious-latent and manifest
content
78. Why might someone lapse into REM sleep in the middle of doing something during the day? Narcolepsy
79. How long is the human sleep cycle? 90 minutes
80. When do we consolidate our daily memories? dreams
81. What is the activation-synthesis theory? Dreams are caused by physiological actions of the brain
82. What is age regression?
83. What do we know about the hidden observer in Hilgard’s research? Conscience/ actual self in hypnonsis
84. What is tolerance? Withdrawal? Build up “immunity” to a drug so that you have to keep taking more to
have the same effect. Physical problems that arise when your stop taking a drug
85. How is nicotine classified? Alcohol? Stimulant. Depressant
Learning:
86. What type of learning involved the famous Bobo doll experiment and who is associated with this
research?
Observational/ Bandura
87. What is the difference between reinforcement and punishment? Continues/encourages a behavior.
Stops/discourages a behavior
88. What is the difference between negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement? Take away
unpleasant stimulus which will continue a behavior (asprin with headache) Reward correct behavior
(money for good grades)
89. Why was Pavlov’s research so important? Shows that conditioning can occur
90. What is spontaneous recovery and extinction? Conditioning response ends and then just starts up again.
End of response to stimulus
91. What is the overjustification effect? When a behavior that has previously been intrinsic has been
rewarded so much it becomes extrinsic
92. What is learned helplessness and when it is likely to occur? No ma stop tryingtter what you do the
outcome will be the same
93. What are the schedules of reinforcement? Give an example of each.Variable/Fixed: Ration/Interval
94. Who first conducted research on associative learning? What was the outcome? Pavlov/Skinner:
Conditioning
95. How do biological predispositions and cognitive processing influence learning? Be specific. Cite
examples and / or research.