2022, Set 2, Question 1 · Concept Application · 7 points
2022 AP Psychology FRQ 1 (Set 2) answers
Horror movie night, a startle and a mob
Connect arousal, motor neurons and touch processing to a viewer who gets startled and spills a hot drink, explain three group biases in the film's angry villagers, and say why a claim about acting out a dream while sleepwalking is probably wrong.
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 2 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 points across three scenes: Ruth's startle in Part A, the villagers' thinking in Part B, and the sleepwalking claim in Part C. Each concept has a close neighbor that does not score (performing best at middling arousal, stereotypes, groupthink), so the answer has to show the feature that sets it apart: a deliberate change in arousal, all creatures seen as alike, views growing more extreme through discussion.
Part A 3 points
Model answer
Optimal arousal theory: Ruth is bored, which means her arousal is below the level she prefers, so she puts on a scary movie to raise it back up.
Motor neurons: when the lights flash on, motor neurons carry signals from her central nervous system to the muscles of her arm, making it jerk so that the mug tips over.
Somatosensory cortex: the hot chocolate soaks through to her skin, and her somatosensory cortex, in the parietal lobe, processes the heat and the sting of the burn.
What earns each point
- Ruth watches the scary movie to raise her arousal from a bored, too low level (or acts afterward to bring it back down). The theory says people act to move their arousal toward a level that suits them. The answer needs that deliberate change; saying people perform best at a middle level, or that her arousal rose when she was startled, does not show her seeking a level.
- Motor neurons produce a specific movement in the scene, such as her arm jerking and spilling the drink. Motor neurons carry commands out to the muscles. Lumping them together with seeing, tasting and feeling gives them jobs they do not do, so the answer names one movement.
- The somatosensory cortex processes a touch sensation in the scene, such as the heat or pain of the spilled drink. This strip of the parietal lobe handles body senses: touch, temperature, pressure, pain and body position. It does not process light, taste or emotions.
Part B 3 points
Model answer
Out-group homogeneity bias: the villagers see creatures as all alike, assuming every creature is vicious, so they never consider that this particular one could be gentle.
Fundamental attribution error: when the creature knocks a villager down, the mob concludes it happened because he is violent by nature, overlooking the situation: he tripped on a rock while running for his life.
Group polarization: each villager already felt somewhat uneasy about the creature. Talking it over together pushed those fears to an extreme, until the group was certain he would hurt them and drove him out with torches.
What earns each point
- The villagers perceive creatures as all sharing the same traits. The bias is seeing members of another group as more alike than they are. Judging only this one creature as scary is not a view about the group.
- The villagers blame the creature's disposition for knocking the villager down and overlook the situation (the rock, the chase). The error contrasts a trait explanation with a situational one, so both sides have to appear. His big, frightening look is his appearance, not a disposition.
- The villagers already feared the creature before the discussion, and talking together made the fear more extreme. Polarization needs both halves: a view held beforehand and a stronger version of it after the group discusses it. One villager swaying the rest, or people keeping doubts quiet for harmony, describes groupthink.
Part C 1 point
Model answer
Lynn is probably wrong because sleepwalking and vivid dreaming happen in different stages of sleep. Sleepwalking occurs during deep NREM sleep, while most vivid, story-like dreams occur during REM sleep, when the body's voluntary muscles are so relaxed that they are effectively paralyzed. Someone in REM sleep cannot get up and walk, so Ruth could not have been acting out a chase dream as she walked.
What earns the point
- During REM sleep the body is essentially paralyzed, or sleepwalking and dreaming usually happen in different sleep stages. Dreams of a chase come in REM, when the muscles cannot move; walking in sleep happens in deep NREM sleep. Arguing about how fast she would move if chased misses the biology.
Common mistakes
From what the exam readers reported seeing in 2022 students' answers, in our words:
- Describing optimal arousal as needing a certain amount of arousal to do a task, or as being aroused enough to startle easily. Responses commonly did this.
- Treating the somatosensory cortex as the place where every sense is processed, not only the body senses, which responses frequently did.
- Pointing the somatosensory cortex at Ruth's fight or flight response, at her reaction to the light or at the act of spilling. Responses often did one of these.
- Calling out-group homogeneity a stereotype, or treating the one creature as the entire out-group, which happened often.
- For the fundamental attribution error, treating the creature's big, scary appearance as a disposition. Responses commonly made this mistake.
- Describing groupthink, with one or a few villagers swaying the others, when the bullet asks about group polarization. This was often the answer given.
- Leaving out that the villagers held their views before they discussed them, which most group polarization answers did not mention.
- Arguing that Ruth would not flee because she knew the creature was friendly, or that correlation is not causation, instead of the sleep stage explanation.
Question, scoring guidelines and Chief Reader report: College Board, from the Internet Archive. The title, summary and worked answer are ours.