2022, Set 1, Question 1 · Concept Application · 7 points
2022 AP Psychology FRQ 1 (Set 1) answers
Skateboarder performing for a crowd and selling online
Apply three concepts to a skater doing tricks while onlookers cheer, then apply four more to explain why his online video and free trial offer win customers.
Skip to the worked answer and scoring (try the question first if you can)
This exam had two free-response questions to answer in 50 minutes, a Concept Application question and a Research Design question, each scored out of 7 points. The current exam has 2 free-response questions in 70 minutes. The skills these questions practice still count.
1 Read the question
The question is College Board's, from the 2022, Set 1 exam. It starts on page 2 of the PDF. College Board no longer posts this exam, so it opens from the copy of College Board's PDF that the Internet Archive saved on January 16, 2025.
2 Write your answer
Answer each part the way you would on the exam, in full sentences, with your work shown. Your writing saves as you type.
3 Score it
Score your answer against College Board's scoring guidelines, one point at a time. Give yourself a point only when your answer says what the guideline asks for.
Scoring guidelines (PDF, page 2) What the exam readers saw (Chief Reader report)
4 Worked answer and scoring
Here is how a response that earns full credit could read, part by part, and what College Board's scoring guidelines look for, put in our own words. Open a part once you have written your own answer to it. The scoring guidelines PDF above is the official word on every point.
Seven concepts, one point each. Part A is about Rayce skating in front of a cheering crowd; Part B is about why the online video and the free trial bring in customers. Each answer has to show the concept doing something in that scene, and a few of them hinge on one detail: a change in performance for social facilitation, the customer paying back the favor for reciprocity, and seeing the ad more than once for mere exposure.
Part A 3 points
Model answer
Vestibular sense: the semicircular canals and vestibular sacs in Rayce's inner ear track the tilt and rotation of his head, which lets him keep his balance as he spins and lands his tricks.
Social facilitation: Rayce has practiced these tricks for years, so with the crowd watching he skates even better than usual, getting more height and cleaner landings than he does alone. (A trick he has barely learned could go worse in front of them.)
Incentive theory: the applause and cheers are an outside reward, and wanting more of them drives Rayce to keep attempting harder tricks for the crowd.
What earns each point
- The vestibular sense gives Rayce his balance while skating, or its disruption makes him dizzy. The vestibular system senses head position and movement relative to gravity. Knowing where his limbs are is kinesthesis, and naming the inner ear without balance says nothing about what it does.
- Rayce performs his tricks better because an audience is there (or worse on a trick he has not mastered). Social facilitation is a change in performance caused by the presence of others: well learned tasks improve, new ones can suffer. Enjoying the attention does not describe any change in how he skates.
- Rayce is motivated by an external reward such as the crowd's applause or approval. Incentive theory explains behavior by rewards from outside. Skating because he finds it fun is intrinsic motivation.
Part B 4 points
Model answer
Divergent thinking: instead of one standard ad, Rayce came up with several original ways to sell, a flashy video with music and a free one hour test ride, and that range of creative ideas helped the campaign succeed.
Peripheral route to persuasion: the bright graphics and fast music catch viewers' attention and leave them with a good feeling about the boards, persuading them through surface cues rather than facts about how the boards are built.
Reciprocity norm: because Rayce let them ride a skateboard for an hour at no cost, people feel they owe him something back, so they buy a board or tell friends about it.
Mere exposure effect: viewers who come across the video again and again grow to like the skateboards more each time they see them, which makes them more likely to buy one.
What earns each point
- Rayce considers or uses several different approaches, or thinks creatively and innovatively, in his campaign. Divergent thinking generates many possible solutions. Listing the graphics and music without calling them creative or one of several approaches does not show the thinking behind them.
- The campaign persuades through attention grabbing features such as the graphics and music. The peripheral route works through cues unrelated to the product's merits. Facts, statistics or detailed arguments about the board would be the central route.
- Customers who got the free trial feel obliged to return the favor by buying or promoting the board. The norm lives in the person who received the favor. It has to be the customer paying Rayce back, not Rayce hoping for something in return.
- Repeated exposure to the video, the ads or the boards makes people like them more or buy more. The effect needs more than one exposure for the same person. Liking a board at first sight, or one hour of riding, is a single experience.
Common mistakes
From what the exam readers reported seeing in 2022 students' answers, in our words:
- For the vestibular sense, describing awareness of where body parts are, or hearing, with no mention of balance. Some responses did this.
- Saying the crowd affected Rayce without saying his performance changed because the audience was there. Some social facilitation answers stopped short like this.
- Explaining incentive theory with internal or intrinsic motivation, which some responses did.
- Divergent thinking needs a creative approach or a clear statement that more than one approach was used; some responses gave neither.
- Describing the central route when the bullet asks about the peripheral route, as some responses did.
- For the reciprocity norm, having Rayce do something and then expect a return, with no sense that the customer feels obliged to pay back the favor. Responses often made this error.
- For the mere exposure effect, not making clear that the same person, or the same group, sees the campaign repeatedly. This was often left out.
- Treating mere exposure as the product being seen by lots of people, which some responses did.
Question, scoring guidelines and Chief Reader report: College Board, from the Internet Archive. The title, summary and worked answer are ours.