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Practice Exam 1

75 multiple-choice and 2 free-response questions, in the format of the AP Psychology Exam. Each section runs on its own clock and ends when time runs out.

Section	Questions	Time
Section I: Multiple Choice	75	90 minutes
Section II: Free Response	2	70 minutes

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Section I: Multiple Choice

75 questions · 90 minutes

Researchers bred two lines of mice, one that startles easily at sudden noises and one that stays calm. Pups from each line were randomly assigned to grow up in either an enriched cage, with toys and tunnels, or a plain cage. As adults, the easily startled mice raised in enriched cages startled about as rarely as the calm mice did. Which statement correctly describes this research?
Answer: C.
1. A
  The mice's line could not be assigned, but cage type was. A study is an experiment when at least one variable is manipulated and assigned at random, and the comparison of enriched and plain cages meets that test.
2. B
  A correlational study measures variables as they naturally occur without manipulating any of them. Here the researchers decided which cage each pup grew up in, which goes beyond measuring a relationship.
3. C
  Correct. Cage type was the independent variable: the researchers manipulated it and used random assignment to decide which pups got which cage. That makes the study an experiment, and its result shows an inherited tendency being changed by the environment the animals grew up in.
4. D
  A case study looks in depth at one individual or a very small group, usually without manipulating anything. This study compared groups of mice that the researchers created by assigning cages.
In studies in several countries, researchers slowly move two head-shaped paddles past newborns only minutes old. One paddle has two eyes and a mouth placed where a face would have them; the other has the same marks rearranged. The newborns turn their heads and eyes farther to follow the face-like paddle. Which explanation would a psychologist taking the evolutionary perspective give for this preference?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The evolutionary perspective explains a behavior by how it helped ancestors survive and reproduce. A newborn who locks onto faces pulls adults into looking back and caring for it, so a built-in pull toward faces would have been passed on.
2. B
  This is a behavioral explanation, in which the preference is learned from rewards. It also struggles with the timing, since the preference shows up within minutes of birth, before there has been time to learn it.
3. C
  This is an environmental explanation built on each infant's own first experience. What a newborn sees first differs from baby to baby and country to country, yet the preference is shared, which points to something inherited.
4. D
  This is a psychodynamic style of explanation built on unconscious wishes. It says nothing about survival or reproduction, which is what an evolutionary account rests on.
Late in a long tennis match, Tamsin lunges to return a serve, and she notices she is sweating far more than she was in the first set. Which subsystems of the peripheral nervous system mainly control the lunge and the sweating, in that order?
Answer: D.
1. A
  This reverses the two. She chose to lunge, which makes the movement somatic, and she did not choose to sweat, which makes the sweating autonomic.
2. B
  The lunge is somatic, but sweating is not something she controls on purpose. Involuntary processes like sweating belong to the autonomic nervous system.
3. C
  Sweating is autonomic, but the lunge is a deliberate movement of her arm and legs. Voluntary movement is governed by the somatic nervous system.
4. D
  Correct. The lunge is a voluntary movement of skeletal muscles, which the somatic nervous system governs. Sweating happens without her deciding to do it, so it is run by the autonomic nervous system.
After a fall, Mr. Kowalczyk's spinal cord is badly damaged in his lower back. The nerves and muscles in his legs are unharmed, yet he cannot move his legs when he tries. Which explanation is most accurate?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Voluntary movement belongs to the somatic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system handles involuntary processes such as heart rate, so it is not what moves his legs when he tries.
2. B
  Correct. The spinal cord is part of the central nervous system and carries messages between the brain and the peripheral nerves. With it damaged, the brain's commands never reach the healthy nerves in his legs, so the problem is in the relay, not in the legs.
3. C
  The somatic nervous system is part of the peripheral nervous system, not the central nervous system. The stem also says his leg nerves are unharmed, and those nerves are somatic, so the somatic system was not destroyed.
4. D
  The parasympathetic division calms involuntary processes such as heart rate and digestion. It does not control skeletal muscles, so it cannot hold his legs still against his attempts to move them.
As hail starts to fall, Ulrike, a farmer, gashes her shin on a jagged piece of metal while hurrying her goats into their shed. She keeps working for another hour and hardly notices the cut, and only once she is back inside does it begin to throb. Which neurotransmitter most likely kept the pain down while she worked?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Substance P carries pain signals, so more of it would have made the cut hurt more. Endorphins, which reduce pain, work in the opposite direction.
2. B
  Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter and is tied to learning and memory. Making neurons more likely to fire does not explain a deep cut going almost unnoticed.
3. C
  Correct. Endorphins are the body's own pain-reducing neurotransmitters, and the body releases them during intense stress and physical effort. That fits an injury that hardly hurt during the rush to get the goats in and began to throb once the danger had passed.
4. D
  Acetylcholine carries the signals that move her muscles as she works, and it is involved in memory. It does not explain why the cut hardly hurt.
A researcher records the electrical charge inside one neuron while giving it brief pulses of stimulation. With no stimulation, the charge holds steady at -70 millivolts. A weak pulse raises it to -62 millivolts, and it drifts back without firing. A stronger pulse raises it to -55 millivolts, and the charge suddenly jumps to +30 millivolts. Right after that spike, the charge dips to -75 millivolts before settling back at -70. In these readings, what does the level of -55 millivolts represent?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The resting potential is the steady charge with no stimulation, -70 millivolts in these readings. The -55 reading is where the neuron's behavior changed, not where it sat at rest.
2. B
  The refractory period begins with the spike, when the neuron briefly cannot fire again, and runs through the dip to -75 that follows. It is not the level reached before the spike.
3. C
  Reuptake is the reabsorption of neurotransmitter by the sending neuron after release into the synapse. It is a step in chemical communication between neurons, not a voltage level inside the cell.
4. D
  Correct. A neuron fires only when its charge reaches a certain level. The pulse that reached -62 produced nothing, while the pulse that reached -55 set off the jump to +30, which marks -55 as the threshold. Once the threshold is reached the neuron fires fully, which is the all-or-none principle.
During some surgeries, patients receive a drug that attaches to the acetylcholine receptors on muscle cells without activating them, so the muscles stay relaxed. How should this drug be classified?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The drug occupies acetylcholine's receptors without activating them, so acetylcholine cannot get its message through and the muscle cells do not fire. Discouraging neural firing this way is what an antagonist does.
2. B
  Binding to a receptor is not enough to make a drug an agonist. An agonist mimics or strengthens the neurotransmitter and encourages firing. This drug binds and then does nothing, which keeps the muscles from responding.
3. C
  A reuptake inhibitor leaves more neurotransmitter in the synapse, which would strengthen acetylcholine's effect and make the muscles more active. That is the opposite of what happens here.
4. D
  Depressants such as alcohol reduce neural activity broadly. This drug works at the receptors on muscle cells, and the muscles relax because acetylcholine is blocked there, not because brain activity has slowed.
Surgeons remove a slow-growing tumor from the very front of Ms. Thistlewood's frontal lobes, just behind her forehead. Afterward she walks, speaks and recalls facts normally. Back at work in her print shop, though, she can no longer draw up the week's staff schedule, and when one way of solving a problem fails, she keeps trying it again instead of switching to another. Which brain area was most likely damaged?
Answer: B.
1. A
  The parietal lobes sit near the back crown of the head and process touch and organize sensory information. Damage there would not match a tumor behind the forehead, and her trouble is with planning and changing course, not with making sense of what she senses.
2. B
  Correct. The prefrontal cortex, at the front of the frontal lobes just behind the forehead, handles higher-order thinking and executive functioning, which include planning ahead and switching strategies when one is not working. Intact movement, speech and memory alongside trouble planning and changing course fit damage there.
3. C
  The temporal lobes, on the sides of the brain, handle hearing and language. Ms. Thistlewood speaks and understands normally, which argues against damage there.
4. D
  The cerebellum sits at the back of the brain and coordinates movement and balance. She walks normally, and her problems are with planning, not coordination.
Corwin had his corpus callosum severed to treat severe epilepsy. In a test, a picture of a teapot is flashed only to his right visual field, and he says at once that he saw a teapot. He is then asked to find the teapot by touch with his left hand alone, among objects hidden behind a screen, and his left hand does no better than chance. Which explanation best accounts for this?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The brain is organized contralaterally, so the right visual field goes to the left hemisphere, not the right. This choice also has the right hemisphere naming objects, but the language areas are typically in the left hemisphere.
2. B
  Severing the corpus callosum does not damage the occipital lobes. He named the teapot right away, which shows he saw it.
3. C
  The image did reach his left hemisphere, but that hemisphere typically holds Broca's and Wernicke's areas, which is how he could name the teapot. And the left hand is controlled by the right hemisphere, so both halves of this choice are backward.
4. D
  Correct. Information from the right visual field goes to the left hemisphere, where the language areas usually are, so he could name the teapot. His left hand is controlled by the right hemisphere, and with the corpus callosum severed, the left hemisphere had no way to send the image across, so his left hand had nothing to go on.
Dr. Ashgrove, a neurologist, has followed one patient for a year since a tumor damaged his cerebellum. He has trouble keeping his balance, and he takes far longer than most adults to learn a new card-shuffling skill. In her report she concludes that the tumor slowed his learning of new motor skills. What is the main problem with this conclusion?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Random assignment belongs to experiments, and no one may ethically be assigned brain damage. Studying a patient who already has damage is an accepted, ethical way to learn about the brain, so this is not the flaw.
2. B
  Detailed description of behavior is exactly what a case study provides. An EEG records electrical activity, which would add information, but it could not show how he learned before the tumor.
3. C
  Correct. A case study usually begins after the damage, so there is often no record of how the person did beforehand. Without one, his slow learning now cannot be traced to the tumor rather than to how he always was.
4. D
  His symptoms match the cerebellum, which coordinates muscle movement, balance and some procedural learning. The brain stem handles basic functions such as breathing and heart rate, so she has not confused the two.
Dr. Lindqvist wants to estimate how many adults in her city have trouble falling or staying asleep. She posts a survey link on an online forum for people who struggle with sleep, and 72 percent of the 400 people who respond report regular insomnia symptoms. Which is the most serious problem with using this result to describe adults in her city?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. People who join a forum about sleep trouble are far more likely than the average adult to have insomnia, so the result overstates the problem. This is sampling bias, and it limits how far the result can be generalized. A random sample of the city's adults would fix it.
2. B
  Descriptive research such as a survey does not need an independent variable. It cannot show causes, but estimating how common something is is a good use of a survey.
3. C
  A well-chosen sample of 400 can describe a much larger population. What matters here is how the respondents were chosen, not how many there were. A larger sample from the same forum would be just as biased.
4. D
  Sleep labs use EEG to identify sleep stages, but insomnia is defined by trouble falling or staying asleep, which people can report themselves. Self-report has limits, but it is not the most serious problem in this design.
Every weekend, Gwendolyn, a pharmacist, stays up until 3 a.m. and sleeps until 11 a.m. On Sunday night she lies awake until well past 1 a.m., and at work on Monday morning she feels groggy and sluggish until lunch. Which explanation best fits her experience?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Narcolepsy involves sudden, uncontrollable attacks of sleep, and a stressful job does not cause it. Her symptoms follow the timing of her weekend schedule, which points to a disrupted rhythm.
2. B
  REM rebound is an increase in REM sleep after a person has been deprived of it. It does not explain lying awake late on Sunday and dragging through Monday morning, which is a problem of timing.
3. C
  Sleep apnea involves pauses in breathing that interrupt sleep. Nothing in her story points to breathing problems, and she is lying awake rather than being woken.
4. D
  Correct. The sleep/wake cycle is a circadian rhythm of about 24 hours, and two late nights and late mornings push hers later. On Sunday night her body is not ready to sleep at her usual time, and on Monday morning it is still set for sleeping in, until the rhythm shifts back.
A poster shows a flag with three stripes: green, black and yellow. Printed beside it is an instruction to stare at the flag for half a minute and then look at a blank white square next to it. Which best describes what most viewers will see in the white square, and why?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Those are the right colors, but three kinds of cones is the trichromatic theory, which explains how color is detected. It does not explain why each stripe comes back in its opposing color, which is the work of ganglion cells in opposing pairs.
2. B
  An afterimage like this one appears in the opposing colors, not the ones that were stared at. Green, black and yellow come back as red, white and blue.
3. C
  Correct. In the opponent-process theory, ganglion cells work in pairs: red and green, blue and yellow, black and white. Staring at each stripe tires one side of its pair, so on the white square the other side briefly wins, and green, black and yellow show up as red, white and blue.
4. D
  Rods detect shape and movement in dim light but not color, and they do not take over on a bright white square. The afterimage here is colored, which rods cannot produce.
Questions 14 to 15 refer to the following.
Dr. Brannigan studied whether background noise changes how loud a tone must be before people can hear it. Eight volunteers sat in a sound booth and heard very soft tones at many volume levels. For each volunteer, she recorded the softest level, in decibels, that the volunteer reported hearing on at least half of the trials. Each volunteer was tested once in silence and once with a fan running nearby. The thresholds are below, in decibels.
- Volunteer 1: silence 10, fan 15
- Volunteer 2: silence 16, fan 22
- Volunteer 3: silence 7, fan 13
- Volunteer 4: silence 12, fan 17
- Volunteer 5: silence 21, fan 24
- Volunteer 6: silence 9, fan 16
- Volunteer 7: silence 13, fan 18
- Volunteer 8: silence 8, fan 14
What is the median threshold in the silence condition?
Answer: B.
1. A
  10 is the lower of the two middle values. With eight scores, the median is halfway between the fourth and fifth values in order, 10 and 12.
2. B
  Correct. In order, the silence thresholds are 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 21. With eight scores, the median is the mean of the fourth and fifth values: (10 + 12) / 2 = 11 decibels.
3. C
  12 is the mean. The thresholds add to 96, and 96 / 8 = 12. Volunteer 5's high threshold of 21 pulls the mean above the median.
4. D
  14 is the range, 21 - 7. The range describes variation, not the middle of the data.
Uses the material above question 14.

Which statement is best supported by the data?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Each recorded level is an absolute threshold, the softest tone heard on at least half of the trials. Every threshold rose with the fan, by 3 to 7 decibels, and a higher threshold means a louder tone was needed, which is lower sensitivity.
2. B
  The numbers did rise, but a higher threshold means the tone had to be louder before it was detected. That is lower sensitivity, so this choice reads the direction backward.
3. C
  A just-noticeable difference is the smallest change in a stimulus a person can detect. Each number here is the softest tone detectable at all, an absolute threshold, and the gap between conditions is the effect of the fan.
4. D
  The data show the opposite. Volunteers 3, 8 and 6 had the three lowest thresholds in silence and rose by 6, 6 and 7 decibels, among the largest increases, while Volunteer 5, with the highest threshold in silence, rose by only 3.
At a soccer match, a close play is shown again on the stadium screen. Fans of the home team are sure they see the visiting defender trip their forward, while fans of the visiting team are sure the forward simply fell. Which concept best explains why the two groups saw the same images so differently?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Bottom-up processing relies on the incoming sensory information. Both groups saw identical images, so if perception were driven only by the images, they would have seen the play the same way.
2. B
  Change blindness is missing a change in a scene because attention is elsewhere. The fans did not miss anything. They noticed the play and interpreted it differently.
3. C
  Figure and ground is a Gestalt principle for separating an object from its background. Both groups could pick out the players. They disagreed about what the players did.
4. D
  Correct. Each group's loyalty set up an expectation about what happened, and that expectation filtered what they saw. This is top-down processing through a perceptual set, which is why identical images produced two confident and opposite reports.
A video streamer cuts between two camera angles every few minutes. Between two cuts, the poster on the wall behind her switches from a mountain photo to a city skyline, and almost none of her viewers comment on it. Which concept best explains this?
Answer: C.
1. A
  The cocktail party effect is when something personally important, such as your own name, pulls your attention in a noisy setting. It describes noticing, which is the opposite of what happened.
2. B
  Sensory adaptation is reduced sensitivity to a stimulus that stays the same, like no longer hearing a ticking clock. The poster changed, so the viewers were not adapting to an unchanging stimulus.
3. C
  Correct. Viewers were paying attention to the streamer, not the background, so a change outside the focus of their attention went unseen. Missing a change in the environment because of inattention is change blindness.
4. D
  Closure is the tendency to fill in gaps to perceive a complete shape. It explains seeing a whole figure, not failing to notice a swap.
After a week of news coverage about a roller coaster that stalled with riders stuck at the top, Mr. and Mrs. Haverford tell their children the rides are the most dangerous part of a theme park trip. In fact, the drive to the park carries a far greater risk of injury. Which concept best explains the parents' judgment?
Answer: C.
1. A
  The representativeness heuristic judges something by how well it matches a prototype or stereotype. The parents were not comparing the ride to a typical case. They were relying on a memorable recent example.
2. B
  The sunk-cost fallacy is continuing something because of what has already been put into it. Nothing in the story involves money or effort the parents are trying not to waste.
3. C
  Correct. The parents judged the risk by how easily vivid examples came to mind, and a week of news made the stalled ride easy to recall. That is the availability heuristic, and it led them to overrate a rare danger and underrate a common one.
4. D
  Functional fixedness is seeing an object only in its usual use, which gets in the way of solving problems. It has nothing to do with estimating risk.
Dr. Fenwick wants to know how often adults keep doing something only because they have already put money or time into it. She asks 500 adults one survey question: "Do you ever stick with a plan just because you already paid for it?" Eighty-five percent answer no, and she concludes that this kind of reasoning is rare. Which is the strongest criticism of her conclusion?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The sunk-cost fallacy is hard to see in yourself, and admitting to it can feel foolish, so limited self-awareness and social desirability bias both push the answers toward no. Observing what people actually do after paying for something would give a truer count.
2. B
  Random assignment is how an experiment tests a cause. Dr. Fenwick is estimating how common a behavior is, which a survey can do. Assigning people to groups would not fix answers that people cannot or will not give accurately.
3. C
  This survey describes how often people report something; it does not relate two variables, so it is not a correlation. Surveys can estimate how common a behavior is. The trouble here is the accuracy of the answers.
4. D
  The gambler's fallacy is believing a chance outcome is due after a run of the other outcome. Her question asks about continuing because of past investment, which is the sunk-cost fallacy, so it matches what she meant to measure.
On her way to school, Odalys reminds herself to return a library book during lunch, and at noon she remembers to do it. Which type of memory let her carry out the plan?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Episodic memory holds personal past events, such as what happened on her last trip to the library. Remembering a planned future action is a different job.
2. B
  Correct. Prospective memory is remembering to perform an action in the future. Odalys formed an intention in the morning and retrieved it at the right time.
3. C
  Procedural memory is implicit memory for skills, such as riding a bike. Returning the book at noon depended on remembering a plan, not on a skill.
4. D
  Semantic memory holds general facts and knowledge, such as what a library is. It does not explain remembering to do something at a set time.
While he waits for a bus, Hollis pictures the route to a friend's new apartment as a map in his head. He keeps the map in mind while he types a text message about dinner plans. Then a game on his phone asks him to trace a moving dot across the screen with his finger, and the map falls apart. According to the working memory model, which component was holding the map?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The phonological loop holds words and sounds, so it was handling the text message. If the map had been held there, the message would have been the bigger problem, not the moving dot.
2. B
  The central executive directs attention and coordinates the other components, but it does not store the map. The pattern of interference points to the component that holds images and spatial layouts.
3. C
  Iconic memory is sensory memory for images and fades in under a second. A map kept in mind for minutes is being held in working memory, not in a brief sensory trace.
4. D
  Correct. Picturing a route keeps it in the visuospatial sketchpad, which holds images and spatial layouts. The text message used the phonological loop and left the map alone, but tracing a moving dot is a visual and spatial task, so it competed with the map in the same component.
A new server at a busy diner remembers a table's nine-item order by grouping it as three drinks, three main dishes and three desserts. Which encoding process is the server using?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Grouping items into meaningful categories cuts nine separate items down to three organized groups, which is chunking. It lets more information get into memory at once.
2. B
  The method of loci links items to places along a familiar route, such as the rooms of a house. The server is sorting the order by category, not by location.
3. C
  The spacing effect is the advantage of spreading study over time. The server heard the order once and organized it on the spot.
4. D
  The primacy effect is better memory for the first items in a sequence. It describes which items stick, not a strategy for grouping them.
Dr. Calloway randomly assigns 60 volunteers to learn a list of 20 words either with the method of loci or by reading the list aloud. Because of scheduling, the method-of-loci group is tested at 9 a.m. in a quiet room, and the read-aloud group is tested at 4 p.m. in a busy cafeteria. The method-of-loci group recalls more words. Which is the most serious problem with concluding that the method of loci caused the difference?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Words recalled is the dependent variable, the outcome that was measured. The independent variable is the learning method. Mixing up the two is a common error, but it is not a problem with the design.
2. B
  Random assignment makes groups comparable at the start by spreading individual differences across conditions. It is a strength of this study. The trouble came after assignment, when the groups were tested under different conditions.
3. C
  Correct. The groups differed in more than the learning method. The method-of-loci group also had a morning test in a quiet room, so the quiet room or the time of day could explain its higher recall. Confounding variables like these block a cause-and-effect conclusion.
4. D
  The read-aloud group is the comparison group. A control condition does not have to receive nothing; it only has to differ in the variable being tested. The problem is that the groups also differed in other ways.
Two students are studying the term depolarization for a psychology quiz. Esme repeats the definition over and over until she can say it without looking. Rowan pictures it as a gate swinging open to let a rush of positive charge into the neuron, and he connects it to what he already knows about how a neuron fires. Which statement is best supported by research on memory storage?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Effort is not what separates the two kinds of rehearsal. Repeating information over and over is maintenance rehearsal, however hard it feels. Elaborative rehearsal is defined by connecting the information to meaning.
2. B
  Correct. Linking the term to a familiar image and to something he already knows gives it meaning, which is elaborative rehearsal. Rehearsal that builds meaning keeps information in long-term memory longer than simple repetition does.
3. C
  Only Esme used maintenance rehearsal. Rowan connected the term to an image and to earlier knowledge, which is elaborative, so the two methods are not equivalent.
4. D
  Rowan's method is the elaborative one, and maintenance rehearsal does not work through sensory memory. Sensory memory lasts only a moment, and rehearsal of either kind works on information that has moved past it.
Asked to name his kindergarten teacher, Ignatius draws a blank. When he is shown a list of five names, he picks hers out right away. Which concept best explains the difference?
Answer: D.
1. A
  This mixes up the two terms. Remembering without cues is recall, and that is the part that failed. Picking a name from a list is recognition.
2. B
  Infantile amnesia covers memories from the first few years of life, and the memory here was stored, since he recognized the name at once. The difference came from how he was asked, not from a missing memory.
3. C
  Nothing in the story puts him back in his kindergarten classroom. The only thing that changed between the two attempts was the list of names.
4. D
  Correct. Recall means retrieving without cues, and recognition relies on retrieval cues. The list of names gave him cues that the open question did not, so a memory he could not recall was still there to recognize.
Before a biology test, Soren covers his notes and tries to write each definition from memory, then checks what he missed and tries again. His classmate rereads the same notes for the same amount of time. Which concept best predicts that Soren will do better on the test?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Recognition relies on cues being present, as when a choice on a test looks familiar. Rereading builds the familiarity that recognition uses. Soren is practicing recall, and that is what made the difference.
2. B
  Context-dependent memory depends on studying and testing in the same setting. Nothing says either student studied where the test is given, so setting does not separate them.
3. C
  Correct. The testing effect is the finding that practicing retrieval strengthens memory more than rereading does. Writing definitions from memory makes Soren pull the information out, which is what the test will ask him to do.
4. D
  Maintenance rehearsal is repeating information to keep it active, and rereading is closer to that than Soren's method is. His advantage comes from retrieving the information, not repeating it.
Valentin tells his friends, with confidence, that he learned in history class that a certain castle kept eels in its moat. In fact, he heard it on a podcast, and it never came up in class. Which concept explains his error?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Source amnesia is remembering information but misremembering where it came from. Valentin has the fact right and the source wrong.
2. B
  The misinformation effect is when misleading information received after an event distorts the memory of the event itself. Nobody misled Valentin, and the fact he remembers is the one he heard. What he has wrong is where he heard it.
3. C
  Retroactive interference is new learning disrupting the recall of older information. Nothing newer has pushed out the fact, which he recalls easily.
4. D
  Encoding failure means information never got into memory. Valentin clearly encoded the fact, since he can repeat it.
Dr. Thibault shows 80 participants a slideshow of a kitchen. Each is then randomly assigned to read one of two written summaries of the slideshow. One summary mentions a blender that never appeared in the slides, and the other does not mention a blender. Later, all participants are asked whether they saw a blender. Which participants make up the control group?
Answer: B.
1. A
  This is the experimental group, the one that received the misleading information. Comparing its answers with the control group's is how the study measures the misinformation effect.
2. B
  Correct. The control group is the one that does not receive the treatment being tested. Here the treatment is the false blender detail, so the participants whose summary left it out are the control group, and their answers show how often people report a blender without being misled.
3. C
  Saying you saw a blender is a response, part of the dependent variable. Groups are formed by random assignment before anything is measured, not by how participants answer.
4. D
  Everyone seeing the same slideshow keeps the groups alike, but a control group is the part of the sample that does not get the treatment. If all 80 were the control group, there would be nothing to compare.
Dr. Oyelaran gives adults aged 65 and older the same memory test. Half are told that the test measures how much memory declines with age, and half are told it measures everyday problem-solving. The first group scores noticeably lower. Which concept best explains the difference?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Stereotype lift is a boost some people get from knowing that a negative stereotype applies to another group, not their own. Here a stereotype about the test takers' own group lowered their scores.
2. B
  The Flynn effect is the rise in average IQ scores across generations, linked to factors such as better nutrition and health care. It describes change over decades, not a difference created by test instructions.
3. C
  A fixed mindset is the belief that ability cannot change, and it can affect achievement. But the study did not measure beliefs about ability, and the groups differed only in what they were told about the test.
4. D
  Correct. Being told the test measures a skill their age group is stereotyped as lacking made the first group worry about confirming the stereotype, and that worry lowered their scores. This is stereotype threat, and it is one reason test makers try to build socio-culturally responsive assessments.
Dr. Marchetti is trying out a new reasoning test with 200 adult volunteers at a booth at a county fair. Each volunteer signs a consent form, fills in a paper answer sheet that asks only for the volunteer's age, and drops the sheet into a sealed box on the way out. Which ethical safeguard does this procedure provide most directly?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Debriefing means explaining the study's purpose, and any deception, after participation. Nothing in the procedure says the volunteers were told anything afterward; what it describes is how their answers are kept.
2. B
  Correct. The answer sheets carry no names or anything traceable, so no one, including the researcher, can link a score to the person who earned it. That is anonymity, a step beyond confidentiality, in which the researcher knows whose data are whose but keeps them private.
3. C
  Informed assent is the agreement a minor gives alongside a parent's consent. These volunteers are adults who signed their own consent forms, and the procedure described is about how their answers are kept.
4. D
  Institutional review is a check of the research plan by a review board before the study begins. The fair letting her use a booth is permission to use the space, not an ethics review.
Dr. Halvorsen argues that children's drawing skill improves through small gains that add up week by week. Her colleague argues that children's drawings change in kind at certain ages, so a 7-year-old's drawings follow different rules from a 4-year-old's rather than simply being better versions of them. Which theme in developmental psychology are the two researchers debating?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Stability and change asks whether a person's traits persist across the lifespan, for example whether the most skilled young artist stays the most skilled. The debate here is about the shape of the growth, not about whether individual differences last.
2. B
  Nature and nurture asks how heredity and environment shape development. Neither researcher says anything about genes or experience as the cause of the change.
3. C
  Correct. One researcher describes development as gradual and continuous, the other as a series of distinct steps that differ in kind. That is the continuity and discontinuity theme.
4. D
  Chronological order is a way of organizing development age by age, not a theme two researchers could disagree about. Both already agree on the order of the ages; they disagree about whether the change between them is gradual or stepwise.
Researchers recruited 80 four-year-olds and used a random drawing to place half in a weekly music class and half in a weekly art class. They tested the memory span of the same children at ages 4, 6 and 8 to find out whether the music class affects memory span. Which research design did the researchers use to test the effect of the music class?
Answer: D.
1. A
  A cross-sectional study compares different people of different ages at one time. These are the same children tested as they grow, and the comparison that answers the question is between the two classes, not between ages.
2. B
  Memory span is measured in every study, experiments included; here it is the dependent variable. What sets this design apart is that the independent variable, the class, was assigned by the researchers.
3. C
  A case study is an in-depth look at one person or a small group. Eighty children split into two randomly assigned groups and compared is not a case study, however long they are followed.
4. D
  Correct. The researchers manipulated the independent variable, which class each child took, by random assignment and measured its effect on memory span. Testing the same children over time makes it a longitudinal experiment, but the design that tests the effect is the experiment.
Henrike, 71, has noticed over the past few years that she needs brighter light to read a menu, has trouble following conversation in a noisy cafe, and takes longer to hit the brake when a car ahead stops suddenly. Which statement about physical development best accounts for these changes?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Adulthood brings a general leveling off and then a varying decline in visual and auditory sensory acuity and in reaction time. Henrike's weaker reading vision, her trouble hearing in noise and her slower braking all fit that pattern.
2. B
  This has the direction backward. Reaction time and sensory acuity level off in adulthood and then decline; they do not peak near old age.
3. C
  The decline varies from person to person in timing and amount. Development follows a general pattern, but nothing in it sets one age at which every adult loses the same abilities.
4. D
  A critical period is an early window when experiences have strong developmental effects, such as for language in childhood. Gradual losses in later adulthood are not the closing of such a window.
Researchers measured the height of the same 60 girls and 60 boys every year from age 9 to age 15. The data show the mean height gained during the year that began at each age.
- Age 9: girls 5.5 cm, boys 5.4 cm
- Age 10: girls 6.8 cm, boys 5.2 cm
- Age 11: girls 8.1 cm, boys 5.6 cm
- Age 12: girls 6.0 cm, boys 7.3 cm
- Age 13: girls 3.4 cm, boys 9.0 cm
- Age 14: girls 1.6 cm, boys 6.9 cm
Which statement is best supported by the data?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Girls gained more than boys in the years starting at ages 10 and 11 (6.8 against 5.2 cm and 8.1 against 5.6 cm) and slightly more at age 9. Boys gained more only from age 12 on.
2. B
  Both groups' gains rise and then fall: the girls' go from 5.5 up to 8.1 and down to 1.6 cm, and the boys' climb to 9.0 cm before dropping. That rise and fall is the adolescent growth spurt, not a steady rate.
3. C
  Correct. The girls' largest mean gain, 8.1 cm, came in the year starting at age 11, and the boys' largest, 9.0 cm, in the year starting at age 13. The girls' growth spurt peaked about two years earlier.
4. D
  The data give height gained each year, not height itself. Without the children's starting heights, nothing in the table says which group was taller at 15.
A researcher compares 200 teenagers who have an older sister with 200 who have only older brothers. Her published report says the first group holds "less traditional ideas about gender roles," but it never says how those ideas were measured. A second research team wants to repeat the study at other schools. What is the most serious problem the second team faces?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. An operational definition states exactly how a variable was measured, such as a score on a named questionnaire. Without one, the second team cannot tell what "less traditional" meant, so it cannot repeat the measurement, and a study that cannot be repeated cannot be checked.
2. B
  Studies that cannot assign people to groups are non-experimental, and they are repeated all the time. What a repeat needs is to know how each variable was measured, which this report leaves out.
3. C
  Grouping teenagers by an older sibling's sex is a fair way to ask about socialization at home. The trouble is the outcome, the ideas about gender roles, which the report never defines.
4. D
  Ideas and attitudes are measured routinely with surveys and interviews. The second team could measure them too, if the report said how the first team did.
In Teodora's village, girls learn to weave from an early age. When Teodora started at 5, her grandmother sat beside her at the loom, guided her hands through each row of the family's border design and named every step. Over the next three years her grandmother guided her less often, and at 8 Teodora weaves the design quickly and correctly on her own. Yet when her teacher gives her the same design drawn on graph paper, she cannot follow it. Which explanation best fits what Teodora can and cannot do?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Vygotsky saw children as social learners who build skills through interaction with others and scaffolding within a sociocultural context. Her grandmother supported each step at first and withdrew that support as Teodora improved, which is scaffolding. Because the skill was built through that guidance at the loom, it is strongest there.
2. B
  If she were fitting the drawing into her loom schema, she would follow it the way she weaves at the loom, and she cannot. The skill was built with her grandmother at the loom and is tied to that setting.
3. C
  Egocentrism is a preoperational difficulty with other people's points of view, and nothing in the drawing asks her to take one. At 8 she is past that stage.
4. D
  Piaget did hold that the stages come in a fixed order, but that says nothing about why a child can weave a design in one setting and not follow it in another. The difference here is the setting, not the stage.
A survey of 400 adults aged 65 to 85 found that those who said they do crossword puzzles most days scored higher on a vocabulary test than those who rarely do them. A local newspaper concluded that doing crosswords protects crystallized intelligence in later life. Which is the strongest criticism of the newspaper's conclusion?
Answer: B.
1. A
  It is the other way around. Vocabulary is accumulated knowledge, a clear example of crystallized intelligence, so the test fits the newspaper's claim. Fluid intelligence is reasoning quickly about new problems.
2. B
  Correct. The survey measured two variables without assigning anyone to do crosswords, so it shows a correlation only. People with large vocabularies may simply enjoy crosswords more, which would produce the same result without crosswords protecting anything.
3. C
  Adding children would not help, since the claim is about later life. The problem is that a correlation cannot show that crosswords cause higher vocabulary scores.
4. D
  Crystallized intelligence stays relatively stable through adulthood; fluid intelligence is the kind that tends to wane. A correlation's sign also comes from the data, which here show a positive link.
The English word "gift" means a present, but the German word "Gift" means poison. Speakers of each language understand their own word without effort, even though it is spelled the same way in both. Which feature of language does this example best show?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Language is generative, but this example involves a single word, not new sentences. What it shows is that the same letters carry unrelated meanings in two communities.
2. B
  Grammar and syntax govern how words are put in order. No sentence is involved here; the difference lies in what one word means.
3. C
  Correct. Language is a shared system of arbitrary symbols. Nothing about the letters g-i-f-t links them to a present or to poison; each language community agreed on a meaning, and its speakers learned that agreement.
4. D
  Phonemes are units of sound, and the two words differ in meaning, not by one changed sound. The example is about how meaning is assigned, not about the units of sound.
Ottoline, 58, has run a carpentry business for 30 years. Lately she says that what matters most to her is training young apprentices and helping them build careers of their own, and she worries that she will have nothing lasting to show for her life if she does not. According to the stage theory of psychosocial development, which conflict is Ottoline working through?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Integrity and despair is the last stage, when an older adult looks back over a whole life and judges it. Ottoline is still looking forward, to what she can give to people who come after her.
2. B
  Intimacy and isolation is the young-adult conflict over forming close, committed relationships. Her concern is contributing to other people's futures, not finding a partner or close friends.
3. C
  Identity and role confusion is the adolescent conflict over who one will become. Ottoline settled her working identity long ago.
4. D
  Correct. In middle adulthood the conflict is generativity and stagnation: contributing to the next generation and to something that outlasts you, or feeling that your life has stalled. Training apprentices is generativity, and her worry is the fear of stagnation.
Researchers randomly assigned 70 families with 3-year-olds either to a six-week workshop that teaches an authoritative parenting style or to a waiting list. Afterward, two observers watched each child play and rated how often the child cooperated. The observers knew which families had attended the workshop. Which change would most improve this experiment?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Observers who know which families had the workshop may see the cooperation they expect, which is experimenter bias. Keeping them unaware of each family's condition removes that bias without changing anything else in the design.
2. B
  Letting families choose would undo random assignment. Families eager to attend could differ from the others in ways that affect their children, which creates a confounding variable.
3. C
  Without the waiting-list group there is nothing to compare the workshop families with, so the experiment could no longer show whether the workshop made a difference.
4. D
  Parents who attended the workshop also know their group and want it to have worked, so their reports carry the same bias. The fix is to keep whoever rates the children unaware of the condition.
During several painful dental visits, the whine of the dentist's drill was always followed by sharp pain, and Florian came to tense up and sweat at the whine alone. At this dentist's office he always smells a strong mint mouthwash as he sits down in the chair, just before he hears the drill, and the smell is never followed directly by pain. Now the smell of that mouthwash alone makes him anxious. Which process best explains his reaction to the smell?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Generalization is responding to stimuli that resemble the CS. A mint smell does not resemble the sound of a drill; it became frightening because it kept coming before the whine.
2. B
  Spontaneous recovery is the return of an extinct CR when the CS appears again after extinction. Nothing in Florian's story was extinguished, and the smell is a new stimulus, not an old one returning.
3. C
  Correct. The whine became a CS through its pairing with pain. In higher-order conditioning a CS can be used as a UCS, and that is the role the whine played here: the smell was repeatedly paired with the whine, never with pain, and the smell became a CS too.
4. D
  Habituation is a weaker response to a repeated stimulus. Florian's response to the smell grew stronger, not weaker, and it grew because of what the smell predicts.
In a lab study, a tone was followed by a loud burst of noise, which makes people's palms sweat. The researcher measured palm sweating as a skin conductance score each time the tone sounded.
- Day 1, tone followed by noise, trials 1 to 8: scores rose from 0.1 to 0.9
- Day 2, tone alone, trials 1 to 8: scores fell from 0.8 to 0.1
- Day 3, after a rest with no testing, first trial of tone alone: score of 0.5
Which concept is shown by the Day 3 result?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Stimulus discrimination is responding to the CS but not to stimuli that resemble it. Only one tone was ever used, so these data cannot show discrimination.
2. B
  Correct. By the end of Day 2 the response had nearly died out, which is extinction. After a rest, the tone alone brought back a partial response of 0.5. A formerly extinct response returning when the CS is presented again is spontaneous recovery.
3. C
  Extinction is the fading of the CR when the CS appears without the UCS, which is what Day 2 shows. The Day 3 score is a rise after that fading, not more of it.
4. D
  Acquisition is learning the association in the first place, which is what Day 1 shows as the scores rose with each pairing. On Day 3 the noise never sounded, so nothing was being paired.
A trainer at a wildlife center uses food rewards to teach a ferret to carry a small ball across its pen and drop it into a cup. The ferret learns quickly. After a few weeks, though, it begins carrying the ball to a corner and hiding it under its bedding, even though it is rewarded only for dropping the ball in the cup. Which concept best explains this change?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Ferrets naturally stash objects, and the trained behavior is sliding back toward that instinct even while reinforcement continues. That limit on what can be shaped is instinctive drift.
2. B
  Learned helplessness is giving up after learning that you have no control over aversive consequences. The ferret has control and is still rewarded; it is doing something else instead.
3. C
  Extinction is the weakening of a behavior when reinforcement stops. The trainer is still rewarding the cup drop, so the change cannot come from lost reinforcement.
4. D
  Shaping is how the trainer built the cup drop in the first place, by rewarding successive approximations. It does not explain why the ferret starts doing an unrewarded behavior.
A rare owl visits a nature preserve at unpredictable times, sometimes twice in one afternoon and sometimes not for days. Beatriz checks the preserve's live camera on her phone, and the first time she checks after the owl arrives, she sees it. Checking more often does not make the owl arrive any sooner. Which reinforcement schedule is Beatriz's checking on?
Answer: D.
1. A
  On a ratio schedule the number of responses earns the reinforcer. Beatriz could check twice or two hundred times and the owl would arrive at the same moment, so what pays off is the passing of time, not the count.
2. B
  The first check after the owl arrives is the one that pays off, which is an interval feature, but the time between visits is unpredictable. A fixed interval would mean the owl came at the same spacing every time.
3. C
  Seeing the camera picture is not the reinforcer; seeing the owl is. Most of her checks show an empty branch, so reinforcement is partial, not continuous.
4. D
  Correct. The reinforcer becomes available after an amount of time that varies from visit to visit, and the first check after that is reinforced. That is a variable-interval schedule.
A city wants more teenagers to wear bike helmets and can afford one short video ad. According to social learning theory, which ad is most likely to change teenagers' behavior?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Facts about injuries may persuade some viewers, but there is no model performing the behavior and no consequence to watch. Social learning theory centers on observing a model and what happens to that model.
2. B
  Correct. Social learning theory holds that people learn by watching models and the consequences those models receive. The ad shows models similar to the viewers, and the more similar a model is, the more likely the behavior is to be learned, while the friends' praise is a consequence viewers learn from vicariously.
3. C
  With no person to watch and no consequence shown, there is nothing for viewers to learn by observation. Stating a rule is not modeling a behavior.
4. D
  A cyclist shown wearing a helmet is a model, but an older stranger is not similar to teenage viewers, and the ad shows no consequence for wearing it. Both make the behavior less likely to be copied.
For years, residents of a small town who all own modest homes said they were satisfied with them. After a development of large luxury houses is built on the hill above town, many residents begin to say their own homes feel cramped and shabby, though nothing about those homes has changed. Which concept best explains the change in how residents feel?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Downward social comparison is comparing yourself with people who are worse off, which usually makes people feel better. These residents are comparing themselves with people who are better off.
2. B
  Mere exposure predicts liking a stimulus more after repeated exposure. Seeing the luxury houses every day might make residents like those houses, but it does not explain their new dissatisfaction with their own.
3. C
  Correct. The residents now judge how deprived they are by comparing what they have with what their new neighbors have, not by anything their own homes lack. That is relative deprivation.
4. D
  The self-serving bias is crediting your successes to yourself and blaming your failures on the situation. Nobody here is explaining a success or a failure.
Two research teams study explanatory style in adults. Team 1 asks each adult to rate statements such as "When something goes wrong, it is usually my fault" from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Team 2 holds a structured interview in which each adult describes, in his or her own words, a recent setback and why it happened. Which statement best describes the two measures?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. A rating scale such as Team 1's, a Likert scale, turns each answer into a number, so it is a quantitative measure. Team 2's structured interview collects people's descriptions in words, so it is qualitative, even though every adult is asked the same questions.
2. B
  This reverses the two. Numbers on a rating scale are quantitative data, and descriptions in a person's own words are qualitative data.
3. C
  How many people take a measure does not decide its type. What matters is whether the data are numbers or descriptions, and the interview answers are descriptions.
4. D
  Explanatory style can be measured either way. Turning answers into numbers on a 1 to 5 scale makes Team 1's measure quantitative, whatever the topic.
When Gideon hears that a storm that knocked down trees all over town dropped one onto a neighbor's roof, he says, "He must have ignored some warning sign. People who look after their homes don't have that happen to them." Which concept does Gideon's reaction best show?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Out-group homogeneity bias is seeing the members of another group as all alike. Gideon is judging one victim, not lumping a group together.
2. B
  Cognitive dissonance is discomfort when actions and attitudes conflict. Gideon has done nothing that clashes with his beliefs.
3. C
  In-group bias is favoring your own group over other groups. Nothing in his comment compares groups.
4. D
  Correct. Gideon assumes the victim must have done something to bring the damage on himself, which protects his belief that the world is fair and careful people stay safe. That is the just-world phenomenon.
A hotel assigns each new housekeeper to its east wing or its west wing by drawing names from a hat. Six months later, every housekeeper is asked to split a holiday gift fund between the two wings, which earned the same guest ratings. Most east-wing housekeepers give the east wing the larger share, and most west-wing housekeepers give the west wing the larger share. Which concept best explains how they split the fund?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Cognitive dissonance is discomfort when actions and attitudes conflict. Nothing the housekeepers did clashes with what they believe; each favored the wing they work in.
2. B
  Correct. Each group of housekeepers favors the group it belongs to, even though the wings were formed by chance and performed equally. Favoring your own group over others is in-group bias.
3. C
  Belief perseverance is holding on to a belief after evidence shows it is wrong. The housekeepers are not clinging to a disproven belief; they are giving their own wing more.
4. D
  The fundamental attribution error is explaining another person's behavior by their character while overlooking the situation. The housekeepers are not explaining anyone's behavior; they are dividing a fund in favor of their own wing.
Questions 50 to 52 refer to the following.
Dr. Achterberg randomly assigned 24 adult volunteers to one of four conditions, 6 in each. Every volunteer typed for five minutes. In the simple task, volunteers typed a short sentence they had practiced many times. In the complex task, they typed a passage with every word spelled backward. Half of the volunteers on each task typed alone. The others typed while two people sat behind them and watched the screen. Before starting, each volunteer signed a consent form saying the study was about typing and that they could stop at any time. The form did not mention the watchers, and the volunteers were not told that the watchers worked for the researcher. The number of typing errors each volunteer made is shown.
- Simple task, alone: 4, 3, 5, 4, 2, 6
- Simple task, watched: 2, 3, 1, 3, 2, 1
- Complex task, alone: 10, 12, 9, 11, 13, 11
- Complex task, watched: 15, 18, 14, 16, 13, 14
Which concept best accounts for the pattern of errors across the four conditions?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Being watched cut errors on the well-practiced sentence (a mean of 4 alone and 2 watched) and raised them on the backward passage (11 alone and 15 watched). Better performance on a simple task and worse performance on a hard one in front of others is the pattern of social facilitation.
2. B
  Social loafing is putting in less effort on a group task when individual work cannot be picked out. Each volunteer typed alone and was scored individually, and the watched volunteers did better on the simple task.
3. C
  Deindividuation is losing self-awareness and restraint in a group, especially when anonymous. The watched volunteers were the opposite of anonymous: someone was looking at their own screen.
4. D
  Diffusion of responsibility is feeling less responsible to act because others are present, as in the bystander effect. The watchers did not share the task, and the question is how well each volunteer typed, not whether anyone acted.
Uses the material above question 50.

Which step is most needed for this study to meet ethical standards?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The volunteers consented to a study described as being about typing, with the watchers' role left out. Signing a form does not cover what the form did not say, so the researcher still owes them an explanation.
2. B
  Extra payment does not address the ethical issue. What withholding information requires is that participants learn the truth afterward.
3. C
  Ethical guidelines allow limited deception when the research needs it and participants are debriefed. Keeping the watchers' role secret is what lets the study measure a natural reaction to being watched.
4. D
  Correct. The volunteers were not told that the watchers were part of the study or that being watched was what it tested. When participants are deceived, the researcher must debrief them afterward, explaining what was hidden and why.
Uses the material above question 50.

What is the range of the number of errors in the complex task, watched condition?
Answer: B.
1. A
  4 is the range of the complex task, alone condition, 13 minus 9. The question asks about the watched condition.
2. B
  Correct. The range is the highest score minus the lowest. In the watched condition the scores run from 13 to 18, so the range is 18 - 13 = 5.
3. C
  14.5 is the median, halfway between the third and fourth of the ordered scores. The median describes the center of the data, not how far the scores spread.
4. D
  15 is the mean, 90 divided by 6. Like the median, the mean describes the center of the data; the range measures how far the scores spread.
Saffi, 6, has slept through the night without wetting the bed for years. In the weeks after her baby brother comes home from the hospital, she starts wetting the bed again, speaks in baby talk and asks to drink from a bottle. Which ego defense mechanism would a psychodynamic theorist use to explain her behavior?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Displacement is moving a feeling from its real target to a safer one, such as slamming a door after an argument with a boss. Saffi is not redirecting a feeling at anyone; she is behaving like a much younger child.
2. B
  Correct. Under the stress of a new sibling, Saffi falls back on behaviors from an earlier age that once brought her care and attention. Retreating to more childlike behavior under stress is regression.
3. C
  Reaction formation turns an unacceptable feeling into its exaggerated opposite, such as fussing lovingly over a baby you resent. Saffi is acting younger, not acting out the opposite of a feeling.
4. D
  Sublimation channels an unacceptable urge into an activity society values. Bed-wetting and baby talk are not valued outlets.
Desmond is late to nearly every meeting his supervisor runs, though he is on time for everything else and sincerely says he has no idea why. Four psychologists offer explanations. Which explanation is most consistent with the psychodynamic theory of personality?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Psychodynamic theory holds that unconscious processes drive personality. Lateness that appears only with one authority figure, and that Desmond sincerely cannot explain, is the kind of pattern it traces to a feeling outside his awareness.
2. B
  This is a humanistic explanation. Humanistic theory focuses on unconditional regard and the self-actualizing tendency, not on hidden feelings that slip out in behavior.
3. C
  This is a behavioral explanation: escaping something unpleasant is negative reinforcement. It may describe the lateness, but it says nothing about unconscious processes.
4. D
  This is a social learning explanation built on watching models and their consequences. It points to what Desmond observed, not to anything outside his awareness, and it would not explain why he is late only to one supervisor's meetings.
Thaddeus plans every vacation around a country he has never visited, reads about subjects far from his job, and spends weekends at art museums. His coworkers like his ideas but describe him as blunt, quick to argue and slow to cooperate. Which Big Five profile best fits this description?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Nothing in the description says how outgoing Thaddeus is or how organized and dependable he is. His love of new places, ideas and art points to openness, and his arguing points to agreeableness.
2. B
  This reverses both traits. Seeking new places, subjects and art is high openness, and being blunt, argumentative and uncooperative is low agreeableness.
3. C
  Correct. Curiosity about new experiences and ideas marks high openness to experience. Bluntness, arguing and reluctance to cooperate mark low agreeableness.
4. D
  Openness fits, but low emotional stability means frequent worry, moodiness or anxiety, which the description never mentions. Being argumentative belongs to agreeableness, not emotional stability.
A psychologist wants to understand how one retired mountaineer's self-efficacy developed over her career. Over a year, he holds 30 hours of interviews with her, reads her climbing journals and talks with her former climbing partners. Which research design is this?
Answer: D.
1. A
  An experiment manipulates an independent variable and compares groups. The psychologist assigns nothing and studies one person.
2. B
  A correlational study measures two variables across many people to see whether they go together. Here there is one person and no pair of variables being related.
3. C
  Naturalistic observation watches behavior in its normal setting without interfering. The psychologist is interviewing and reading records, not watching the mountaineer climb.
4. D
  Correct. An in-depth study of one person, drawing on interviews, records and people who know her, is a case study. Its findings describe her in rich detail but cannot be generalized to most people.
Lab mice whose bodies cannot produce the hormone leptin eat far more than typical mice and become very heavy, and they keep eating even right after a meal. Which explanation best fits this result?
Answer: B.
1. A
  This treats leptin as the hunger hormone. Ghrelin brings on hunger; leptin signals satiety. Losing a hunger signal would also predict eating less, not more.
2. B
  Correct. Leptin signals satiety, the feeling of having had enough, through the hypothalamus. Mice without it never get that signal, so they keep eating long after a typical mouse would stop.
3. C
  Arousal theory is about seeking an optimal level of alertness and activation. Nothing about the missing hormone points to the mice being under-aroused, and the result follows directly from leptin's role in satiety.
4. D
  Instincts are fixed patterns of behavior, but this overeating comes from a missing hormone signal, not an inborn behavior pattern. Leptin regulates satiety in humans as well as in mice.
Researchers randomly assign 60 children either to receive a prize each time they finish a drawing or to receive no prize. A week later, when no prizes are offered, the researchers count how many minutes each child spends drawing during free play. In this study, what is the operational definition of a child's intrinsic motivation to draw?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Receiving a prize or not is the independent variable, the condition the researchers assigned. It is the cause being tested, not the measure of motivation.
2. B
  Enjoyment deep down is the idea the researchers care about, but it cannot be counted directly. An operational definition says exactly what is measured to stand for it.
3. C
  Correct. Drawing when nothing is offered for it shows motivation from within, and the researchers measure it as minutes spent drawing in free play a week later. That count is the operational definition.
4. D
  Drawings finished while prizes were given could be driven by the prize, which is extrinsic motivation. The researchers wait until no prize is offered so that the measure reflects intrinsic motivation.
A company builds an app that names the emotion on a person's face. It trained the app only on photos of posed expressions from people in one country, and it plans to sell the app worldwide without changes. Based on research about emotional expression, which prediction is best?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Some emotions may be commonly expressed across cultures, but research on universality shows mixed results, and display rules for showing emotions differ among cultures. An app built from one country's faces should be expected to work better in some places than in others.
2. B
  This overstates the research. Some emotions may be commonly expressed across cultures, but the findings are mixed, and display rules change how and when emotions are shown.
3. C
  This overstates in the other direction. Research suggests some emotions, such as happiness or fear, may be commonly expressed across cultures, so an app need not fail everywhere.
4. D
  This borrows the facial-feedback hypothesis, which is about faces influencing what a person feels, not about how well others or an app can read the face. Research testing that hypothesis has also produced mixed results.
A car swerves toward Marguerite as she rides her bike. Her attention locks onto the car's bumper and the curb beside her, and she brakes hard, the only move she considers. Afterward she cannot say what color the car was or whether anyone else was on the street. Which idea about emotion best accounts for her narrow focus?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Display rules govern how and when emotions are shown, and they vary among cultures and groups. They say nothing about how fear changes what a person notices.
2. B
  Correct. The broaden-and-build theory holds that positive emotions broaden awareness, while negative emotions such as fear reduce awareness and narrow thinking and action. Marguerite noticed only the threat and considered only one response.
3. C
  The facial-feedback hypothesis concerns faces influencing feelings. Nothing in the example involves Marguerite's expression, and it would not explain her narrowed attention.
4. D
  This describes a view of how the body's response and the feeling are timed. Even if both came at once, that view says nothing about why her awareness narrowed to the threat.
Juniper learns that her college scholarship will be cut in half next semester. Which of her responses is an example of emotion-focused coping?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Applying for a new grant works on the stressor itself, the missing money, so it is problem-focused coping. A response does not become emotion-focused just because it will also make her feel better.
2. B
  Correct. Meditation changes how Juniper feels about the cut and leaves the cut itself in place. Managing the emotional reaction to stress, through strategies such as meditation or deep breathing, is emotion-focused coping.
3. C
  A pounding heart and shaking hands are her body's first reaction to the news, the fight-flight-freeze response of the alarm reaction. That is a reaction to stress, not a strategy she chose for coping with it.
4. D
  A tighter budget attacks the money problem directly by making the smaller scholarship stretch further. Treating the stress as a problem to solve is problem-focused coping, even though no feelings are mentioned.
Bram has no major life events during one semester. He does face a daily drive to campus that road work keeps delaying, a roommate who leaves dishes piled in the sink, and a laptop that freezes during online quizzes. By December his blood pressure at a checkup is well above his usual reading, and his doctor finds no medical cause. Which explanation from health psychology best fits Bram's higher blood pressure?
Answer: D.
1. A
  A traumatic stressor is a severe event such as a serious crash or a house fire. Bram's stressors are small, and the rise came after months, not right away. Calling any stressor that causes harm traumatic misses the difference between trauma and hassles.
2. B
  Eustress is stress a person experiences as motivating. Nothing suggests these irritations push Bram to do better, and his health is getting worse. Being busy is not the same as being motivated.
3. C
  Adverse childhood experiences are sources of stress in childhood, such as neglect or violence at home. Bram's stressors are happening now, in college, so this mixes up when the stress occurred.
4. D
  Correct. Traffic delays, dirty dishes and a frozen laptop are daily hassles. One alone is minor, but hassles can build up over time, and stress has been linked to physical problems such as hypertension, or high blood pressure.
For two years, Philippa has cared for her ailing father every evening after her full-time job, and his care has not let up. Through the first year she kept up with both and rarely got sick. For the past two months she has felt completely drained, has fallen behind at work for the first time, and has had three infections, though the caregiving goes on as before. In terms of the general adaptation syndrome, which phase best accounts for her run of infections?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The exhaustion phase comes when the stress subsides or when resources are spent. The caregiving has not ended, but after a year of coping Philippa's resources have run out: she is drained and falling behind. The exhaustion phase is when susceptibility to illness is greatest.
2. B
  Resistance is the phase in which a stressor is confronted and the person keeps coping, which fits her first year. The caregiving is the same now, but she is no longer holding up, and susceptibility to illness is greatest in the phase that follows.
3. C
  The alarm reaction is the fight-flight-freeze response when a stressor is first encountered. Her stress began two years ago, and nothing new has set off an alarm.
4. D
  Caring for her father does involve tending to someone else, but tend-and-befriend describes a way of reacting to stress, not the point at which illness is likeliest. It does not explain why she keeps getting sick now.
Marisela, a retired electrician, volunteers at a public library. For a year she shelved books and felt only mildly satisfied. When the library asks her to run a weekly clinic where she patiently teaches patrons to repair their own lamps and radios, a role that calls on the curiosity and kindness her friends have always said define her, she reports being far happier and more satisfied with her life. Which concept from positive psychology best explains the change?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Posttraumatic growth is positive change after trauma or serious stress. Nothing traumatic happened to Marisela; her task changed. A rise in happiness after any life change is not growth after trauma.
2. B
  Expressing gratitude does increase subjective well-being, but Marisela is not thanking anyone. The change in her day is what she does, not a thank-you.
3. C
  Correct. Repairing electrical devices is something Marisela is especially good at. People who exercise their signature strengths report higher happiness and subjective well-being, which matches what she reports.
4. D
  Eustress is stress experienced as motivating. The new task is not described as pressure or a challenge she is bracing for, and eustress is a way of viewing a stressor, not a source of lasting life satisfaction.
A rehabilitation hospital adds a psychologist to the team that treats adults learning to walk again after serious leg injuries. The psychologist works from the positive psychology approach. Which project would she most likely take on?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Positive psychology seeks the factors that lead to well-being, resilience, positive emotions and psychological health. Asking why some patients bounce back is a question about resilience.
2. B
  Screening for a disorder looks for what has gone wrong. That is useful clinical work, but positive psychology starts from the other side, asking what leads to well-being and psychological health.
3. C
  Deep breathing to manage nerves is emotion-focused coping, a topic in health psychology. Helping someone feel calmer is not the same as studying what produces well-being and resilience.
4. D
  How stress affects the immune system is a health psychology question about stress and physical health. It studies a harm rather than the strengths that help people do well.
A counselor who works with adults recovering from serious workplace injuries claims that every one of them will eventually show posttraumatic growth. When a client shows no growth after several years, she says that the client simply has not reached that point yet. Which is the strongest criticism of her claim as a scientific hypothesis?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Positive psychology exists to study well-being, resilience and positive experiences such as posttraumatic growth, so growth is a fair subject for research. The trouble is that her claim cannot be tested.
2. B
  Assigning injuries would be unethical, and many questions are studied without random assignment. Her claim fails for a different reason: no observation could ever count against it.
3. C
  The two are related but different. Resilience is adapting well and recovering, while growth is coming out of a struggle changed in ways a person values. Renaming the idea would not fix the claim.
4. D
  Correct. A scientific hypothesis has to be falsifiable: some possible result must be able to show it wrong. Here a client with growth supports the claim and a client without growth is said to be not there yet, so every result fits and the claim cannot be tested.
Halvard has had a low mood for several years. His psychologist argues that the low mood comes from painful feelings about how harshly his father treated him as a boy, feelings Halvard has pushed out of awareness and does not recognize. Which perspective is the psychologist using to explain the disorder?
Answer: B.
1. A
  The humanistic perspective looks for causes in a lack of social support and being unable to fulfill one's potential. The psychologist's explanation turns on hidden feelings from childhood, not on unmet potential.
2. B
  Correct. The psychodynamic perspective traces mental disorders to unconscious thoughts and experiences, often developed during childhood. Feelings about his father that Halvard does not recognize are exactly that.
3. C
  The behavioral perspective looks for maladaptive learned associations between stimuli and responses. Nothing in this explanation is about a learned link; it is about feelings outside awareness.
4. D
  The biological perspective looks for physiological or genetic causes. A harsh father is an experience, not a physiological issue, and the explanation never mentions the body or genes.
For one month each year, Amaris eats and drinks nothing from dawn to dusk, as most families in her community do. She enjoys the custom, works full time, and keeps up close friendships. A clinician new to the area notes the behavior as a possible sign of a disorder. Which best explains why the behavior does not point to a psychological disorder?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Behaviors are central to identifying disorders; dysfunction is often judged by what a person does. Ruling out behavior would rule out most of what clinicians observe.
2. B
  Deviation from the social norm is still one of the factors, alongside dysfunction and distress. The clinician's mistake is judging deviation against the wrong norm, not using deviation at all.
3. C
  Norms are judged within the person's own culture, not across every culture at once. A behavior can be common elsewhere and still deviate from the norms of the person's own community.
4. D
  Correct. Deviation from the social norm is judged against the person's own cultural norms, and in her community the custom is ordinary. Amaris also shows no dysfunction and reports no distress, so none of the factors points to a disorder.
Researchers plan a study of how 14- to 16-year-olds' views of themselves change during the first year after they are diagnosed with a depressive disorder. A review board approves the plan. Each teen's parent signs a consent form after hearing the purpose and the risks, and parents are told their teen may leave the study at any time. Records will be stored under code numbers instead of names. Which step should the researchers add to meet ethical guidelines?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Sharing a diagnosis with the school without permission would break confidentiality, one of the protections the study already handles well with code numbers.
2. B
  Diagnosing healthy teens on purpose would harm them, and a diagnosis is not something a researcher can ethically assign. This treats an ethics question as a design question.
3. C
  Putting names on the records would weaken confidentiality, not strengthen the study's ethics. The code numbers are already the right choice.
4. D
  Correct. Participants who are minors need their parent's consent and also their own informed assent. The plan has parental consent but never asks the teens themselves.
Coworkers say that Leopold sometimes introduces himself by another name, speaks in a different accent and manner, and later has no memory of those conversations. When asked, he says he often finds notes in his own handwriting that he does not remember writing. He has a history of severe trauma in childhood. Which disorder do these symptoms fit best?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Dissociative identity disorder involves dissociation of identity, with distinct identities that take turns, along with gaps in memory. A different name and manner that Leopold cannot later recall fit it, and dissociative disorders are linked to trauma or stress.
2. B
  Schizophrenia is often confused with a split identity, but its symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking or motor behavior, and negative symptoms. Leopold shows none of those.
3. C
  Dissociative amnesia also involves memory gaps after trauma, but it does not include separate identities. The other name, accent and manner point beyond memory loss alone.
4. D
  Bipolar I disorder involves periods of mania and depression. A change in name and accent with no memory of it is a change in identity, not a shift in mood or energy.
Last spring, Corinne, a graphic designer, went through two months of deep sadness when she could barely get out of bed. In October she slept two or three hours a night for ten days, talked so fast that friends could not follow her, phoned old clients at all hours to pitch a business she was certain would make her famous, and was admitted to a hospital after she stopped going to work. Which disorder do her symptoms fit best?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Bipolar II disorder also has periods of depression and high periods, but its high periods are milder and do not lead to hospitalization. The higher number does not mark the more severe form.
2. B
  Correct. Corinne alternates between a period of depression and a period of mania severe enough to disrupt her work and put her in a hospital. Depression together with full mania fits Bipolar I disorder.
3. C
  Her certainty that the business will make her famous can look like a delusion of grandeur, but it comes during a period of very little sleep, racing speech and high energy, after an earlier period of depression. That cycle of mood points to a bipolar disorder.
4. D
  The spring months fit a depressive episode, but this choice ignores October. A period of mania rules out a depressive disorder alone.
Researchers studying hoarding disorder photograph the homes of 30 participants, with each participant's written permission, so that trained raters can score the clutter. The team later posts the photos on a public website, each labeled with the participant's first name and street. Which ethical principle has the team most clearly violated?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Debriefing means explaining the study's purpose and any deception afterward. It does not require giving each person a score, and missing scores are not the problem with these photos.
2. B
  Random assignment is a part of experimental design, not an ethical principle. A study of people who all have one disorder needs no random assignment to be ethical.
3. C
  Correct. Researchers must keep participants' identities and data private. Posting photos of their homes with names and streets lets anyone identify them, which breaks confidentiality.
4. D
  Having a psychological disorder does not by itself prevent an adult from giving informed consent, and these participants gave written permission. The violation came after consent, when the photos were posted.
Questions 73 to 75 refer to the following.
Researchers recruited 60 adults with a specific phobia of heights. A computer randomly assigned 20 to six weekly sessions of systematic desensitization, 20 to six weekly sessions of person-centered therapy, and 20 to a waiting list whose members were offered treatment after the study ended. Before and after the six weeks, each adult took a 10-step approach test on the open stairway of a seven-story building, from standing at the bottom (step 1) to looking over the railing at the top (step 10). A staff member who did not know which group each adult was in recorded the highest step completed. The mean highest step for each group is shown.
- Systematic desensitization: 2.4 before, 7.8 after
- Person-centered therapy: 2.6 before, 3.9 after
- Waiting list: 2.5 before, 2.9 after
The rise in the systematic desensitization group was significantly larger than the rise in either other group. The difference between the person-centered group and the waiting list was not statistically significant.
Which best describes the purpose of the waiting-list group in this study?
Answer: B.
1. A
  The dependent variable is the outcome measured, here the highest step reached on the approach test. The waiting list is a group, one level of the independent variable the researchers manipulated, not something they measured.
2. B
  Correct. The waiting list is the control group. Scores can rise over six weeks from retaking the test or from time alone, so the therapy groups' gains mean something only when compared with a group that got no treatment.
3. C
  A computer assigned adults to groups at random; nobody chose the waiting list. Random assignment is what makes the groups comparable in the first place.
4. D
  A placebo group receives something that looks like treatment but should have no effect. The waiting-list group received nothing during the six weeks, so it is a no-treatment control group, not a placebo group.
Uses the material above question 73.

Which conclusion do the results best support?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The person-centered group did rise a little more (1.3 steps against 0.4), but the difference was not statistically significant, so it could be due to chance. A gap in the means is not evidence until it is significant.
2. B
  The gains were 5.4, 1.3 and 0.4 steps, and the desensitization gain was significantly larger than the others. This misreads the table as showing similar change in every group.
3. C
  The study tested one phobia, of heights, in one group of adults. Stretching the result to every anxiety disorder generalizes far beyond what was measured.
4. D
  Correct. The desensitization group rose 5.4 steps (2.4 to 7.8), compared with 1.3 and 0.4, and that difference was statistically significant. With random assignment, the conclusion holds for adults like those in the study.
Uses the material above question 73.

The systematic desensitization sessions in this study most directly apply which approach to treatment?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Systematic desensitization is an exposure therapy, and exposure therapies apply principles of conditioning, which is applied behavior analysis. The client relaxes while facing the feared situation in steps, so relaxation replaces the fear.
2. B
  Psychodynamic therapies use free association and dream interpretation to uncover the unconscious. Desensitization works on the fear response directly and never looks for a hidden cause.
3. C
  Biological interventions include medications and procedures such as TMS. Desensitization uses practice and relaxation, with no drug, even though it does calm the body.
4. D
  Person-centered therapy is the study's other treatment group, built on active listening and unconditional positive regard. Desensitization is directive, with the therapist leading the client up the steps.

Section II: Free Response

2 questions · 70 minutes

Question 1: Article Analysis Question 7 points

Read the summary of the research article below. Then, using the source provided, respond to all parts of the question.

Source

Introduction

Many college students read their course material with music playing. The working memory model gives a reason this could matter. Reading silently relies on the phonological loop, the part of working memory that holds words as sounds, and heard speech gets into the phonological loop whether or not a person wants it there. Sung words might therefore compete with the words on the page, while music without words might not. The researchers tested the hypothesis that listening to music with lyrics while reading lowers reading comprehension.

Participants

The researchers recruited 132 undergraduates, ages 18 to 23 (mean age 19.4), from the research participant pool of the introductory psychology course at Calder Point University, a public university in a small city. Students received course credit for taking part. A student who did not want to take part could earn the same credit by writing a one-page summary of a research article. All participants were fluent English speakers, and none reported a hearing difficulty. Of the 132 participants, 89 were women and 43 were men. When asked how they usually study, 81 said they often study with music that has lyrics.

Method

Before the session, each student read and signed a consent form. It explained that they would read passages while wearing headphones, answer questions afterward, and could stop at any time without losing their course credit. A computer then randomly assigned each student to one of three conditions, with 44 students in each:

Lyrics: eight popular songs with English lyrics.
Instrumental: the same eight songs with the vocals removed.
Silence: the same headphones, playing no sound.

In both music conditions the volume was fixed at the same moderate level, well below levels that can damage hearing, and students could not turn it up. Each student read four passages from an introductory geology textbook, about 600 words each, for 20 minutes. The sound then stopped, the passages were taken away, and the student answered 20 multiple-choice questions about the passages. Reading comprehension was measured as the number of the 20 questions the student answered correctly. Students also rated how distracting the sound had been, from 1 (not at all) to 7 (extremely). All answers were stored under a participant number rather than a name. At the end of the session, a researcher explained the hypothesis of the study to each student and answered their questions.

Reading comprehension and distraction by condition
Condition	Number of students	Mean comprehension score (out of 20)	Standard deviation	Mean distraction rating (1 to 7)
Silence	44	14.8	2.6	1.6
Instrumental	44	14.3	2.9	3.2
Lyrics	44	12.2	3.1	5.3

Results and Discussion

Students in the lyrics condition answered fewer questions correctly than students in the silence condition. This difference was statistically significant, with an effect size of 0.91. (Each effect size in this summary is the difference between two conditions' mean scores divided by the standard deviation within those two conditions.) The lyrics condition also scored significantly lower than the instrumental condition, with an effect size of 0.70. The difference between the instrumental and silence conditions was not statistically significant, with an effect size of 0.18.

Within the lyrics condition, the 27 students who said they often study with lyrics had a mean comprehension score of 12.4, and the 17 who did not had a mean of 11.9. This difference was not statistically significant.

The researchers concluded that sung words interfere with understanding what one reads, and that being used to studying with lyrics did not protect students from that interference. They noted that students heard songs the researchers chose rather than their own music, and that the reading lasted only 20 minutes.

Adapted from: Varga-Ellison, M., Thandeka, N., & Prewitt, J. (2024). Sung words and silent reading: A test of lyric interference in college students. (Invented for this practice exam, not a published study.)

Your response should be provided in six parts: (A), (B), (C), (D), (E) and (F). Write the response to each part in complete sentences, and use appropriate psychological terminology.

(A)

Identify the research method used in the study.
Question 1, part (A): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (A)
- 1 point Accurately identifies the research method as an experiment.Earns it: "The research method is an experiment."; "The researchers ran an experiment, randomly assigning students to hear lyrics, instrumental music or silence while reading."Does not: "a correlational study" (the researchers did not simply measure music habits and scores; they assigned the sound condition at random and compared groups); "a survey" (students did rate distraction, but the method is defined by the random assignment to manipulated conditions, not by one rating scale); "a naturalistic observation" or "a case study" (the study took place in a controlled session with 132 participants, not by watching people in daily life or studying one person in depth)
Model response
The research method is an experiment. The researchers manipulated what students heard while reading (lyrics, instrumental music or silence) and used a computer to randomly assign students to those conditions before comparing their comprehension scores.
(B)

State the operational definition of reading comprehension.
Question 1, part (B): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (B)
- 1 point States a measurable definition of reading comprehension as it was used in the study.Earns it: "Reading comprehension was the number of the 20 multiple-choice questions about the passages that a student answered correctly."; "Reading comprehension was the student's score on the 20-question test given after the reading."Does not: "how well a student understands what they read" (a dictionary definition, not the measurement the researchers used); "the distraction rating from 1 to 7" (that is a different measured variable); "whether the student listened to lyrics, instrumental music or silence" (that is the independent variable, not how comprehension was measured)
Model response
The operational definition of reading comprehension is the number of questions, out of 20 multiple-choice questions about the four geology passages, that a student answered correctly after the 20 minutes of reading.
(C)

Describe what the effect size of 0.91 indicates about the comparison between the lyrics condition and the silence condition.
Question 1, part (C): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (C)
- 1 point Accurately describes what the effect size indicates about the size or strength of the difference between the lyrics and silence conditions, related to this study, with the lyrics condition scoring lower. Describing the size in standard-deviation terms, or as a big or strong effect, earns the point as well as the word "large."Earns it: "An effect size of 0.91 means the gap between the groups was large: students who heard lyrics understood much less of what they read than students who read in silence."; "It shows that hearing lyrics had a big effect on comprehension, lowering scores well below the silence group."; "Because 0.91 is above 0.8, the difference is a large one, and it is in the direction of the lyrics group answering fewer questions correctly."; "The lyrics group's mean was about nine tenths of a standard deviation below the silence group's, a big gap in comprehension."Does not: "The effect size is 0.91." (restates the number without saying what it means for these groups); "The difference is statistically significant." (significance says the difference is unlikely to be due to chance; it is a different statistic and says nothing about how big the difference is); "There is a strong positive correlation between lyrics and comprehension." (the effect size here describes the size of a difference between two conditions, and lyrics went with lower scores, not higher); "The lyrics group got 91 percent of the questions right." (an effect size is not a percentage of questions; that group's mean was 12.2 out of 20); "Lyrics had a small effect." (0.91 is in the large range)
Model response
An effect size of 0.91 indicates that the difference in reading comprehension between the two conditions was large. Students who heard music with lyrics while reading scored much lower on the comprehension questions than students who read in silence, and the gap was big rather than slight.
(D)

Identify one ethical guideline described in the study. Describe one way the researchers in the study applied this ethical guideline.
Question 1, part (D): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (D)
- 1 point Identifies an ethical guideline the study describes AND describes how the researchers applied it in this study. Any of these earns the point when it is paired with its matching application: informed consent, the right to withdraw, confidentiality, debriefing, protection from harm, or voluntary participation without coercion (the equal-credit alternative).Earns it: Informed consent: "Students read and signed a consent form explaining what they would do and that they could stop at any time without losing credit."; Confidentiality: "Answers were stored under a participant number instead of a name."; Debriefing: "At the end of the session, a researcher explained the hypothesis to each student and answered questions."; Protection from harm: "The volume was fixed at a moderate level below levels that can damage hearing, and students could not turn it up."; Right to withdraw: "The consent form told students they could stop at any time without losing their course credit."; Voluntary participation without coercion: "A student who did not want to take part could earn the same credit by writing a one-page summary of a research article, so no one had to join the study to get credit."Does not: "The study was approved by an institutional review board." (the summary does not say this, so it is not a guideline described in the study); "Informed consent." with nothing more (names a guideline but does not describe how this study applied it); "The researchers used random assignment, which is ethical." (random assignment is a design element that controls for differences between groups, not an ethical guideline); "The researchers should have let students choose their own music." (describes something the researchers did not do, and choosing songs is not an ethical guideline); "Confidentiality: the researchers told students they could stop at any time." (names a guideline described in the study but pairs it with the application of a different one)
Model response
One ethical guideline described in the study is confidentiality. The researchers applied it by storing every student's answers under a participant number rather than a name, so no one looking at the data could tell how a particular student scored.
(E)

Explain the extent to which the research findings may or may not be generalizable using specific and relevant evidence from the study.
Question 1, part (E): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (E)
- 1 point Makes a claim about generalizability to a population (general or specific) AND supports it with specific evidence about the study's participants (age, school, course, language, hearing, gender or study habits). Evidence about the procedure or the sample size does not earn the point, though including it beside participant evidence does not cost the point. A response that says the study is partly generalizable must show both the way it is and the way it is not.Earns it: "The findings may generalize to college students like these, but not to all students, because every participant was an 18- to 23-year-old undergraduate in one introductory course at one university."; "The study may not generalize to people with hearing difficulties or to readers who are not fluent in English, because both groups were left out of the sample."; "The results may not apply to high school students or older adults, since only people aged 18 to 23 took part."; "The results may apply less to men, since about two thirds of the participants were women."Does not: "The study is generalizable to the larger population." (a claim with no evidence about who the participants were); "It is not generalizable because only 132 people took part." (sample size alone is not evidence about which population the participants represent); "It is generalizable because students were randomly assigned." (random assignment makes the groups comparable to each other; it does not make the sample representative of a population); "It may not generalize because the researchers picked the songs." (a true limitation, but it is about the procedure, not about the participants, so it does not earn this point); "The study used both men and women." (evidence with no claim about whom the results apply to)
Model response
The findings are generalizable only to a limited extent. They may apply to college students similar to the participants, but every participant was an undergraduate aged 18 to 23 from the participant pool of one introductory psychology course at a single university, and all were fluent English speakers with no hearing difficulty. The results therefore may not hold for younger students such as high schoolers, for older adults, or for people still learning English, whose reading may depend on working memory in a different way.
(F)

Explain how at least one of the research findings supports or refutes the researchers' hypothesis that listening to music with lyrics while reading lowers reading comprehension.
Question 1, part (F): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (F)
- 1 point Uses a result from the study to say whether the hypothesis is supported or refuted, OR explains whether it is supported or refuted without using a result.Earns it: "The lyrics group scored 12.2 and the silence group scored 14.8." (uses a result without explaining what it means for the hypothesis); "The hypothesis is supported because hearing words while reading takes up the part of memory that reading needs." (explains without using a result)Does not: "Students should not listen to music when they study." (advice, with no result and no explanation of the hypothesis); "The hypothesis is supported." (no result and no explanation); "Music is distracting, so the hypothesis is right." (popular belief, with no result from this study)
- 1 point Uses a specific result to explain how it supports or refutes the hypothesis, with every result read accurately. A response that earns this point also earns the point above.Earns it: "The hypothesis is supported: the lyrics group answered 12.2 questions correctly on average compared with 14.8 for silence, a significant and large difference, so reading with lyrics lowered comprehension."; "It is supported because the lyrics group did significantly worse than the instrumental group, which heard the same songs without the words. That points to the lyrics, not music in general, as the cause of the lower scores."; "It is supported even for students used to studying with lyrics: they scored 12.4, not significantly different from the 11.9 of students who were not, so practice did not protect them."; "It is supported only for lyrics: instrumental music did not significantly lower scores compared with silence, so the hypothesis holds for sung words but music in general did not lower comprehension."Does not: "Both kinds of music lowered comprehension, which supports the hypothesis." (misreads the results: the instrumental condition was not significantly different from silence); "The lyrics group scored 0.91 points lower than the silence group." (0.91 is the effect size; the difference in means was 2.6 questions); "Students who often study with lyrics did better, so practice helps." (their 12.4 was not significantly different from 11.9, so the study found no protection)
Model response
The findings support the hypothesis. Students who read while hearing songs with lyrics answered a mean of 12.2 of the 20 questions correctly, compared with 14.8 for students who read in silence, and that difference was statistically significant with a large effect size. The instrumental group, which heard the same songs with the vocals removed, scored 14.3, which was not significantly different from silence. Because the only thing separating the lyrics and instrumental conditions was the sung words, the lower comprehension can be traced to the lyrics, which is exactly what the researchers predicted would compete with reading in the phonological loop.

Question 2: Evidence-Based Question 7 points

Using the three sources provided, develop and justify an argument about whether high schools should sell energy drinks to students on campus.

Source 1

Introduction

Energy drinks are sold in many high school stores and vending machines. Researchers examined whether high school students who drink more energy drinks also report more anxiety and less sleep.

Participants

The participants were 1,180 students in grades 9 through 12 at nine public high schools in three neighboring counties. Of these students, 52 percent were girls and 48 percent were boys. A student took part only if a parent gave written permission and the student also agreed.

Method

During a class period, students completed an anonymous online questionnaire. They reported how many energy drinks they drank in a typical week over the past month and how many hours they usually slept on a school night. They also completed a 10-item anxiety checklist, rating statements such as "I feel restless or on edge" from 1 (never) to 4 (almost always). Total scores could range from 10 to 40, and higher scores mean more anxiety symptoms.

Results and Discussion

Source 1: Anxiety and sleep by weekly energy drinks
Energy drinks in a typical week	Number of students	Mean anxiety score (10 to 40)	Mean sleep on a school night
None	512	18.2	7 hours 32 minutes
1 or 2	431	20.1	7 hours 10 minutes
3 or more	237	24.6	6 hours 40 minutes

The correlation between the number of energy drinks a student drank per week and the student's anxiety score was r = +0.29, which was statistically significant. The researchers noted that the questionnaire measured energy drink use, anxiety and sleep all at the same time.

Adapted from: Ostrander, P., & Mwangi, L. (2023). Energy drink habits, anxiety, and sleep in high school students. (Invented for this practice exam, not a published study.)

Source 2

Introduction

Researchers tested how one can of a caffeinated drink affects young adults' heart rate, how jittery they feel, and how well they search for details, and whether drinking caffeine every day changes the effect.

Participants

The participants were 120 first-year university students aged 18 to 20. Students with a heart condition were not allowed to take part. Each student was asked to have no caffeine after 8 p.m. the night before the session. Before the session, each student reported whether they drink caffeine every day.

Method

Students were randomly assigned to one of two groups of 60. One group drank a 473-milliliter (16-ounce) can containing 160 milligrams of caffeine, about the amount in a large energy drink. The other group drank a can that tasted the same but contained no caffeine. Neither the students nor the researchers who measured them knew which can a student had received. Forty minutes later, the researchers measured each student's heart rate, asked the student to rate how jittery they felt from 1 (not at all) to 10 (extremely), and gave a symbol search task: the student had 3 minutes to find as many copies of a target symbol as possible on a page of mixed symbols.

Results and Discussion

All three differences in the first table were statistically significant. In the caffeine group, 11 of the 60 students rated their jitteriness at 8 or higher, compared with 1 of the 60 students in the no-caffeine group.

Source 2: Means 40 minutes after the drink
Measure	Caffeine group (60 students)	No-caffeine group (60 students)
Heart rate (beats per minute)	83	74
Jitteriness rating (1 to 10)	5.8	3.0
Target symbols found in 3 minutes	51.2	46.8

Source 2: Mean target symbols found, by daily caffeine use
Students who	Caffeine group	No-caffeine group
Drink caffeine every day	48.6 (26 students)	46.4 (28 students)
Do not drink caffeine every day	53.2 (34 students)	47.1 (32 students)

For students who drink caffeine every day, the caffeinated can raised the mean number of targets found by 2.2. For students who do not, it raised the mean by 6.1.

Adapted from: Rasmussen-Tao, E., Fairweather, G., & Oduya, K. (2022). One can of caffeine: Heart rate, jitteriness, and visual search in first-year university students. (Invented for this practice exam, not a published study.)

Source 3

Introduction

The Fernhollow Unified School District has four high schools of about the same size, and all four sold energy drinks in their student stores and vending machines. In the fall of 2023, the school board stopped energy drink sales at two of the high schools and kept them at the other two so that the schools could be compared.

Method

Researchers counted visits to each school nurse for a racing heart, shakiness or an upset stomach, using nurse records from the school year before the change and the school year after it. In the spring after the change, students at the two schools that stopped sales were invited to answer an anonymous survey, and 1,460 students responded.

Results and Discussion

Source 3: Nurse visits for a racing heart, shakiness or an upset stomach
Schools	Year before the change	Year after the change
The two schools that stopped selling	212	131
The two schools that kept selling	198	194

Of the 410 surveyed students who said they had bought an energy drink at school at least once a week before the change, 58 percent said they now bought energy drinks before school or brought them from home. Students who had bought one at school almost every day reported the most tiredness, irritability and trouble concentrating during the first three weeks after sales stopped. Most of them said these feelings had faded by the sixth week. Grade point averages did not change significantly at any of the four schools.

Adapted from: Lisowski, A., & Barragan, T. (2025). Removing energy drinks from high school stores: Nurse visits and student reports in one district. (Invented for this practice exam, not a published study.)

This question has three parts: (A), (B) and (C). For parts (B) and (C), you must cite the source you used, either in parentheses, such as "...(Source 1)", or within the sentence, such as "Source 2 found that...". Write the response to each part in complete sentences, and use appropriate psychological terminology.

(A)

Propose a specific and defensible claim based in psychological science that responds to the question.
Question 2, part (A): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (A)
- 1 point Proposes a claim that responds to the question: a position on selling energy drinks at high schools, a specific effect of selling them, or a recommendation about how schools should handle them. A claim for selling and a claim against selling are equally acceptable. The point can be earned even if parts (B) and (C) do not support the claim.Earns it: "High schools should stop selling energy drinks to students on campus."; "High schools should keep selling energy drinks, because stopping sales does not stop students from drinking them."; "High schools should stop selling energy drinks and teach students who drink them daily how to cut back gradually."; "High schools should limit sales to one energy drink per student per day."Does not: "Deciding whether to sell energy drinks is a hard choice for schools." (describes the question without taking a position); "Energy drinks are bad for you." (an oversimplified conclusion that does not say what schools should do); "Teenagers should get more sleep." (does not respond to the question about selling energy drinks); "Caffeine raises heart rate (Source 2)." (repeats evidence from a source instead of proposing a claim)
Model response
High schools should stop selling energy drinks to students on campus.
(B)(i)

Support your claim using at least one piece of specific and relevant evidence from one of the sources.
Question 2, part (B)(i): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (B)(i)
- 1 point Uses one piece of correctly cited, specific and relevant evidence from one source to support the claim. Small errors in the numbers still earn the point when the direction of the difference or relationship is right.Earns it: "Students who drank a can with 160 milligrams of caffeine rated themselves as much more jittery than students whose can had none, 5.8 compared with 3.0, and 11 of 60 rated their jitteriness 8 or higher (Source 2)."; "In Source 1, students who drank three or more energy drinks a week had a mean anxiety score of 24.6, compared with 18.2 for students who drank none."; For a claim that schools should keep selling: "After two schools stopped selling energy drinks, 58 percent of the students who had bought them weekly at school started buying them before school or bringing them from home (Source 3)."; For a claim that schools should keep selling: "Grade point averages did not change significantly at any of the four schools after two of them stopped selling energy drinks (Source 3)."Does not: "The sources show energy drinks make students jittery." (no particular source is cited); "Energy drinks are bad (Source 1)." (cited, but not specific evidence from the source); "Energy drinks have a lot of sugar, which is unhealthy (Source 3)." (sugar is not discussed in any of the sources, so the evidence is not from the source cited)
Model response
In an experiment, university students who drank a can containing 160 milligrams of caffeine, about the amount in a large energy drink, rated how jittery they felt at a mean of 5.8 out of 10, compared with 3.0 for students whose can had no caffeine, and 11 of the 60 caffeine drinkers rated their jitteriness at 8 or higher (Source 2).
(B)(ii)

Explain how the evidence from part (B)(i) supports your claim using a psychological perspective, theory, concept or research finding learned in AP Psychology.
Question 2, part (B)(ii): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (B)(ii)
- 1 point Correctly interprets the evidence and explains how it supports the claim, with or without a psychological concept. This point can be earned even if part (B)(i) did not earn its point.Earns it: "This supports stopping sales because a drink that leaves students feeling that jittery in the middle of the school day makes it harder for them to sit still and work in class."; "This supports my claim because students who keep buying energy drinks at school are the ones reporting the most anxiety, so schools would be making a bad pattern easier."; For a claim that schools should keep selling: "This supports keeping sales because most students who lost access at school simply bought the drinks somewhere else, so stopping sales did not stop the drinking."Does not: "Students who drank caffeine were more jittery (Source 2)." with nothing after it (evidence repeated without saying how it supports the claim); "Schools should stop selling energy drinks because I think they are dangerous." (opinion with no reference to the sources); "This shows energy drinks cause anxiety (Source 1)." (misreads a correlation measured at one time as proof of cause)
- 1 point Applies a psychological perspective, theory, concept or research finding from AP Psychology correctly to explain how the evidence supports the claim. Terms the sources themselves use do not count as the psychological concept: energy drink, caffeine, anxiety, sleep, heart rate, jitteriness, tiredness, irritability, concentration, grades, survey, questionnaire, correlation, mean, statistically significant and random assignment. A response that earns this point also earns the point above.Earns it: Arousal theory and the Yerkes-Dodson law: performance is best at a moderate level of arousal, so students pushed to very high arousal are likely to do worse on hard schoolwork.; The sympathetic nervous system: caffeine triggers the fight-or-flight branch of the autonomic nervous system, producing the shakiness and racing heart that are no help in a classroom.; Tolerance and addiction: daily users in Source 2 gained less from the same dose, so selling the drinks at school encourages the regular use that builds tolerance and dependence.; For a claim that schools should keep selling, withdrawal: daily buyers in Source 3 felt worse for a few weeks after sales stopped, so a sudden end to sales hurts the students most dependent on caffeine.; For a claim that schools should keep selling, negative reinforcement: drinking one before school ends the unpleasant withdrawal feelings, so the behavior is strengthened and students keep buying elsewhere.; For a claim that Source 1 does not justify a ban, when part (B)(i) cites Source 1's link between energy drinks and anxiety: the directionality problem or the third variable problem, for example that anxious students may seek out energy drinks, or that short sleep or stress could raise both, so the survey cannot show that the drinks cause anxiety. The directionality problem and the third variable problem count as AP Psychology concepts, although the word "correlation" on its own does not.Does not: "Energy drinks contain caffeine, which is unhealthy, so schools should not sell them." (uses words from the sources, not an AP Psychology concept); "Caffeine is a depressant, so it slows students down in class." (applies a concept incorrectly: caffeine is a stimulant); "Students drink them because of the placebo effect." (misapplies the concept: the no-caffeine can was the placebo, and the caffeine group differed from it)
Model response
This evidence supports stopping sales because it shows how far one energy drink can push a student's level of arousal. According to arousal theory and the Yerkes-Dodson law, people perform best at a moderate level of arousal, and performance drops when arousal is too high, especially on difficult tasks. The symbol search in the study was a simple task, but class work such as solving a proof or writing an essay is complex, so the students who rated their jitteriness 8 or higher would be well past the moderate level that helps on hard tasks. Selling these drinks at lunch puts many students into that state right before afternoon classes.
(C)(i)

Support your claim using an additional piece of specific and relevant evidence from a different source than the one that was used in part (B)(i).
Question 2, part (C)(i): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (C)(i)
- 1 point Uses a different piece of correctly cited, specific and relevant evidence, from a different source than the one used in part (B)(i), to support the claim. Small errors in the numbers still earn the point when the direction of the difference is right.Earns it: "After two high schools stopped selling energy drinks, nurse visits for a racing heart, shakiness or an upset stomach there fell from 212 to 131 in a year, while the two schools that kept selling went from 198 to 194 (Source 3)."; "Students who drank three or more energy drinks a week slept about 52 minutes less on school nights than students who drank none (Source 1)."; For a claim that schools should keep selling, after using Source 3 in part (B): "Students given the caffeinated can found more target symbols in 3 minutes than students given the caffeine-free can, 51.2 compared with 46.8 (Source 2)."Does not: Evidence from the same source used in part (B)(i) (the point requires a different source); "Studies show that stopping sales helps students." (no source is cited and the evidence is not specific); "Source 3 says grades went up after sales stopped." (inaccurate: grade point averages did not change significantly)
Model response
After two high schools in one district stopped selling energy drinks, visits to the school nurse for a racing heart, shakiness or an upset stomach at those schools fell from 212 in the year before to 131 in the year after, while visits at the two schools that kept selling stayed almost the same, 198 and then 194 (Source 3).
(C)(ii)

Explain how the evidence from part (C)(i) supports your claim using a different psychological perspective, theory, concept or research finding learned in AP Psychology than the one that was used in part (B)(ii).
Question 2, part (C)(ii): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (C)(ii)
- 1 point Correctly interprets the evidence and explains how it supports the claim. A response that applies the same concept as part (B)(ii) can still earn this point if its explanation does not depend on that concept. This point can be earned even if part (C)(i) did not earn its point.Earns it: "This supports stopping sales because the schools that stopped had far fewer students showing up at the nurse feeling unwell, while the schools that kept selling did not change."; "This supports my claim because the students who drink the most energy drinks also sleep the least, and schools should not make that easier."; For a claim that schools should keep selling: "This supports keeping sales because the caffeinated can helped students find more targets, so a drink can help with some kinds of school work."Does not: "The evidence clearly supports my claim." (no explanation of how); "Students should not drink energy drinks because they are bad for you." (opinion with no reference to the sources); "Nurse visits dropped, which proves energy drinks caused every visit." (misreads the evidence: visits fell but did not stop, and the board chose which schools changed)
- 1 point Applies a psychological perspective, theory, concept or research finding from AP Psychology, different from the one used in part (B)(ii), correctly to explain how the evidence supports the claim. Terms the sources themselves use do not count as the psychological concept: energy drink, caffeine, anxiety, sleep, heart rate, jitteriness, tiredness, irritability, concentration, grades, survey, questionnaire, correlation, mean, statistically significant and random assignment. A response that earns this point also earns the point above.Earns it: The sympathetic nervous system or the fight-or-flight response, if part (B)(ii) used arousal theory: a racing heart and shakiness are signs of sympathetic activation, so fewer visits means fewer students thrown into that state at school.; The hormone adrenaline: its release produces the racing heart and shaking that sent students to the nurse.; Circadian rhythm, or the memory consolidation and restoration theories of sleep, for Source 1's sleep evidence: shorter sleep leaves less time for the brain to consolidate the day's learning.; Tolerance, if part (B)(ii) used a different concept: Source 2's daily users get less from the same dose, so selling the drinks invites students to drink more for the same effect.; Negative reinforcement, for a claim that schools should keep selling, using Source 3's 58 percent who kept buying elsewhere, if part (B)(ii) used a different concept: a drink before school takes away the unpleasant tiredness and irritability of going without, which strengthens the habit, so stopping sales on campus moves the buying rather than ending it.; Arousal theory or the Yerkes-Dodson law, for a claim that schools should keep selling, using Source 2's search-task gain, if part (B)(ii) used a different concept: caffeine raised arousal, and on a simple task such as the symbol search, higher arousal tends to improve performance, so students found more targets.Does not: Using the same concept as part (B)(ii) again (earns only the first point of this part, if its explanation stands without the concept); "Fewer students went to the nurse because they had less stress." (stress is named but not applied; nothing in the source connects the drop in visits to stress); "The drop in visits shows classical conditioning." (names a concept without applying it correctly to the evidence)
Model response
This evidence supports stopping sales because a racing heart and shakiness are signs that the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the autonomic nervous system that drives the fight-or-flight response, has been activated. Caffeine acts as a stimulant that can set off that response even when nothing threatening is happening. When the two schools removed energy drinks from their stores, far fewer students ended up at the nurse with those symptoms, while the schools that kept selling saw no real change. Removing the drinks removed a common source of unneeded sympathetic arousal during the school day.

Practice Exam 2

75 multiple-choice and 2 free-response questions, in the format of the AP Psychology Exam. Each section runs on its own clock and ends when time runs out.

Section	Questions	Time
Section I: Multiple Choice	75	90 minutes
Section II: Free Response	2	70 minutes

One section at a time. When a section's clock reaches zero, the section ends and is scored.
Multiple choice is scored when its section ends, with an explanation for every choice.
Free response is never scored by the page. When the section ends, you see the scoring guide and a model response for each part and tick the points your answer earns.
At the end you get your score and the time you used for each section.
Want the answers as you go? Pick Study mode below. Each multiple-choice answer is checked as soon as you give it, with its explanation, and each free-response question has a button that opens its scoring guide.
Your answers are kept in this browser tab if the page reloads, and nowhere else.

Time for each section Standard time Time and a half Double time Untimed Study mode

Section I: Multiple Choice

75 questions · 90 minutes

A pamphlet from the early 1900s argues that because natural selection favors the fittest, the government should stop people it labels 'unfit' from having children. Which best describes the pamphlet's argument?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Natural selection describes which traits tend to spread across generations. It does not tell anyone who deserves to have children, and using it to justify controlling people's reproduction is a misuse of the evolutionary perspective, not an application of it.
2. B
  Correct. Some theorists have tried to apply evolutionary principles in ways that discriminate against others, and that movement is called eugenics. The pamphlet uses the idea of natural selection to argue that people it labels 'unfit' should be kept from having children.
3. C
  The pamphlet's case rests on the claim that the 'unfit' pass on their traits through heredity, which is a nature argument. Proposing a policy does not turn it into an argument about environment.
4. D
  An adoption study compares adopted children with their biological and adoptive parents. The pamphlet reports no study at all; it uses an idea about evolution to argue for a policy.
Dr. Verbeek wants to know whether a tendency toward motion sickness runs in families because of heredity. Her team gives a motion-sickness questionnaire to 300 adults, to their parents and siblings, to their cousins, and to a comparison group of unrelated adults. Scores are most similar between siblings and between parents and children, less similar between cousins, and least similar between unrelated adults. Which research design did the team use?
Answer: D.
1. A
  A twin study compares identical twins with fraternal twins. No twins were singled out here, and siblings, parents and cousins were all compared, so this is not a twin study.
2. B
  An experiment needs a variable the researcher manipulates, with participants assigned to conditions. Nobody can be assigned a degree of relatedness, so this study only measured family ties that already existed.
3. C
  An adoption study needs adopted people, so that the parents who passed on genes are not the parents who did the raising. These adults were compared with their own biological relatives, so genes and home were never separated.
4. D
  Correct. A family study measures a trait in relatives of different closeness and asks whether similarity rises with the share of genes they have in common. Parents, children and siblings also tend to live together, though, so a family study alone cannot separate heredity from environment.
A patient takes a medication that blocks the signals her sympathetic nervous system sends to her heart. Which change would she most likely notice?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The sympathetic nervous system, part of the autonomic system, speeds up the heart in stressful moments. With its signals to the heart blocked, a scare raises her heart rate less than it normally would.
2. B
  Lifting her arms on purpose is voluntary movement, which the somatic nervous system controls. Blocking sympathetic signals to the heart leaves it alone.
3. C
  Slowing the heart after excitement is the job of the parasympathetic nervous system, whose signals were not blocked. If anything, her heart has less speeding up to recover from.
4. D
  Touch from the skin travels to the brain on sensory nerves of the somatic system. The medication acts only on sympathetic signals to the heart.
Two hours after a stressful job interview, Rafferty sits down to a long, relaxed lunch with his family. His heart rate has settled, and his stomach is busy digesting the meal. Which part of his nervous system is most responsible for these changes?
Answer: C.
1. A
  The sympathetic nervous system readies the body for stress: it raises heart rate and slows digestion. Rafferty's body is doing the opposite now that the interview is over.
2. B
  Chewing and swallowing are voluntary movements, which the somatic nervous system controls, but a settling heart and a working stomach are involuntary processes. Those belong to the autonomic nervous system.
3. C
  Correct. The parasympathetic nervous system, one branch of the autonomic system, governs involuntary processes when the body is at rest. It slows the heart after stress and supports digestion, which is what Rafferty's body is doing at lunch.
4. D
  Involuntary processes are governed by the autonomic nervous system, which is part of the peripheral nervous system. The brain stem is part of the central nervous system, and it does not do this work alone.
A sedative works by making the neurotransmitter GABA more effective at its receptors. Which effect on behavior would you expect from the sedative?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter: its messages make an action potential less likely. A drug that strengthens GABA quiets neural activity, which shows up as calm and sleepiness, the effect expected of a depressant.
2. B
  This describes an excitatory neurotransmitter such as glutamate. GABA is inhibitory, so strengthening it reduces neural firing instead of raising alertness.
3. C
  Distorted perception is the effect expected of a hallucinogen. Strengthening an inhibitory neurotransmitter slows neural activity; it does not make the senses misreport the world.
4. D
  Substance P, not GABA, is the neurotransmitter linked to pain. Strengthening GABA's inhibitory messages would not produce more pain.
Researchers track the norepinephrine released into one synapse and measure how much of it the sending neuron has taken back up by 3 milliseconds after firing. With no drug, the neuron has taken back up 75 percent of what it released. With Drug M, the neuron releases the same amount, but by 3 milliseconds it has taken back up only 25 percent. Which concept best describes how Drug M acts?
Answer: B.
1. A
  An antagonist works against a neurotransmitter, often by blocking its receptors on the receiving neuron. The measurements track how much the sending neuron takes back up, and blocking receptors would not slow that.
2. B
  Correct. After release, a neurotransmitter is normally reabsorbed by the sending neuron, which is reuptake. With Drug M the neuron releases the same amount but has taken back up only a third as much by the same point, so the drug is slowing reuptake, which is what a reuptake inhibitor does.
3. C
  The refractory period is the brief time after firing when a neuron cannot fire again. The measurements show how much norepinephrine returns to the sending neuron, not when the neuron can fire.
4. D
  If the neuron released more norepinephrine each time, the amount released would rise. It is the same with and without the drug, and only how much is taken back up changes.
Fast asleep in a hammock, Annelise does not wake when her brother presses an ice cube against the back of her hand, but her hand pulls sharply away from it. A moment later she wakes up and feels the cold. Which sequence describes the path of the signal that pulled her hand away?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The cold message does reach her brain, but later, which is why she woke and felt it after her hand moved. In a reflex arc the signal turns around in the spinal cord, so the motor cortex is not part of the path that moved her hand.
2. B
  This runs backward. The signal starts at the skin of her hand, which is where sensory neurons pick it up, and it ends at the muscles, which motor neurons serve, so the sensory neuron comes first.
3. C
  Glial cells support neurons with structure, insulation and waste removal, but they are not the link that passes this message. In the spinal cord an interneuron connects the sensory neuron to the motor neuron.
4. D
  Correct. In a reflex arc, a sensory neuron brings the signal from her hand into the spinal cord, where an interneuron hands it on to a motor neuron, which contracts the arm muscles that pull her hand back. The loop closes in the spinal cord, which is why it worked while she was still asleep.
After a fall from a ladder injures his head near the top, toward the back and on the left side, Mr. Brightwater cannot feel his razor on the right side of his face while he shaves, though he feels it normally on the left. He smiles evenly and moves both sides of his face normally, and his vision is unaffected. Which brain area was most likely damaged?
Answer: C.
1. A
  The parietal lobe is right, but the side is not. Touch from each side of the body is handled by the hemisphere across from it, so lost feeling on the right side of his face points to the left hemisphere, which is also where he was hurt.
2. B
  The motor cortex sends the commands for voluntary movement, and Mr. Brightwater smiles and moves his face normally. His problem is feeling touch, not moving.
3. C
  Correct. The parietal lobe, near the back crown of the head, holds the somatosensory cortex, where feeling from the skin is registered. Because the brain is organized contralaterally, damage on the left side affects touch on the right side of the body, the face included.
4. D
  The occipital lobe processes vision, and his vision is unaffected. What he has lost is touch, which the occipital lobe does not process.
Dr. Moravec's team plans to study the hypothalamus by lesioning a small area of it in 20 rats and then recording how much each rat eats. The team has ordered the rats and set a start date. Which step do ethical guidelines require before the study begins?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Animals cannot give informed consent, and a breeder's signature does not stand in for it. Research animals are protected instead by an outside review of how they will be housed, handled and kept from needless pain.
2. B
  Debriefing is for human participants, to explain a study after they take part, and it comes at the end. The missing step here comes before the study, and it is about protecting the animals.
3. C
  Correct. Research with non-human animals, like research with people, must be reviewed and approved by an institutional committee before it starts. The review checks that the animals will be cared for humanely and that pain and distress are kept as low as the study allows.
4. D
  A control group is part of how a study is designed, and adding one would do nothing for the animals' welfare. The committee's review is required whether or not the study has one.
When Liesel was 5, surgeons removed most of her left hemisphere to stop severe seizures, and afterward she could barely speak. After years of speech therapy, by age 10 she spoke fluently. Which concept best explains her recovery?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Brain plasticity is the brain's ability to rewire itself and form new connections throughout development, so the work of a damaged or missing part can be taken over by another. With most of her left hemisphere gone, other areas, mainly in the right hemisphere, took on the language work usually done on the left.
2. B
  Split-brain research involves cutting the corpus callosum and studying each hemisphere on its own. Liesel's surgery removed tissue instead, and separating the hemispheres would not restore speech in any case.
3. C
  Removed brain tissue does not grow back. Her speech returned because other parts of her brain took on the job, not because Broca's area was rebuilt.
4. D
  The cerebellum coordinates muscle movement and supports some procedural learning, but it does not produce language. Fluent speech takes more than smooth muscle movement.
Dr. Quintavalle's sleep lab studies how sleep loss affects mood. For five nights in a row, each participant is allowed only 4 hours in bed. On the fourth morning, one participant is dizzy and confused and nearly faints while walking down the hall. The team notes her symptoms and continues the next night as planned, without having her checked or asking whether she wants to go on. Which ethical problem does this raise?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Recording a participant's symptoms is part of running a study responsibly. Confidentiality is broken when information that identifies a participant is shared, and nothing here describes that.
2. B
  Whether the study needs a comparison group is a question of design, not ethics. Adding one would do nothing for the participant who nearly fainted.
3. C
  Limiting sleep for a few nights can be approved when the risks are explained and managed. The problem is not the method itself but how the team responded once a participant was clearly unwell.
4. D
  Correct. Researchers must take steps to protect participants from harm. Dizziness, confusion and near-fainting are warning signs, and carrying on as planned without a check or a fresh chance to stop puts her at risk.
Researchers at Quarrybrook High School asked 220 athletes how many hours they usually sleep on school nights. Trainers then recorded every sports injury during the season. Athletes who reported less sleep had more injuries, and the correlation was statistically significant. The researchers concluded that losing sleep causes injuries. Which is the best criticism of that conclusion?
Answer: C.
1. A
  A negative correlation is as informative as a positive one: as one variable rises, the other tends to fall. The trouble is not the direction of the relationship but what this design can show about cause.
2. B
  No review board would allow athletes to go without sleep, and a no-sleep group would not fix the problem anyway. To test cause, researchers would need to assign sleep amounts at random, which this study did not do.
3. C
  Correct. The researchers measured sleep and injuries without manipulating anything, so the study is correlational. An athlete with early practices and late games may sleep less and also get hurt more because of all that training, which is the third variable problem.
4. D
  The correlation was statistically significant, so the sample was large enough to detect it. Sample size is not why this conclusion goes too far.
Questions 13 to 15 refer to the following.
Dr. Marchbank wanted to know how quickly people stop noticing steady warmth on the skin. A computer randomly assigned 36 volunteers to three groups of 12. Each volunteer sat alone at a table and rested one palm on a warm pad inside a box with a hand-sized opening, so the pad could be felt but not seen. The pad was held at the same comfortably warm temperature for every volunteer and was brought back to it before each volunteer came in. Volunteers in the three groups kept their palm on the pad for 1 minute, 8 minutes or 15 minutes. At the end of that time, still touching the pad, each volunteer rated how warm it felt on a scale from 0 (no warmth) to 10 (very warm). The ratings are summarized below.
- 1 minute (12 volunteers): mean 7.5, lowest rating 5, highest rating 10
- 8 minutes (12 volunteers): mean 4.0, lowest rating 1, highest rating 7
- 15 minutes (12 volunteers): mean 2.5, lowest rating 0, highest rating 4
Why did Dr. Marchbank have a computer decide which group each volunteer joined?
Answer: B.
1. A
  A random sample is how participants are chosen from a population. The computer acted only after the 36 volunteers had been chosen, and it decided which group each one joined.
2. B
  Correct. Random assignment gives every volunteer the same chance of landing in each group, so differences that volunteers bring with them, such as unusually sensitive skin or hands that were cold when they arrived, tend to even out across the groups. Then a difference in ratings can be traced to how long the volunteers kept a hand on the pad.
3. C
  Keeping volunteers from knowing what to expect is blinding, not random assignment. The computer decided only how long each volunteer touched the pad, not what the volunteer was told.
4. D
  Each volunteer was in one group only, so each touched the pad for just one length of time. Comparing separate groups is what made random assignment necessary.
Uses the material above question 13.

Which group's ratings were the most spread out, as measured by the range?
Answer: B.
1. A
  The 1-minute group had the highest mean, but a mean describes the center of the ratings, not their spread. Its ratings ran from 5 to 10, a range of 5, which is less than the 8-minute group's range.
2. B
  Correct. The range is the highest value minus the lowest. The ranges are 10 - 5 = 5 for the 1-minute group, 7 - 1 = 6 for the 8-minute group and 4 - 0 = 4 for the 15-minute group, so the 8-minute group's ratings were the most spread out.
3. C
  The 15-minute group had the lowest single rating, but a low rating alone does not make a wide range. Its ratings ran only from 0 to 4, a range of 4, the smallest of the three.
4. D
  The groups held the same number of volunteers, but groups of the same size can still differ in spread. Here the ranges are 5, 6 and 4.
Uses the material above question 13.

Which concept best explains why volunteers who kept a palm on the pad longer rated it as less warm?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Volunteers in the 1-minute group rated the warmth from 5 to 10, so the pad was easy to detect. The pad was kept at the same temperature for every volunteer; what differed was how long the volunteers had been touching it.
2. B
  Weber's law describes how much two stimuli must differ for the difference to be noticed. The pad's temperature never changed during the study, and volunteers were not comparing two temperatures.
3. C
  Every group used the same box, so the box cannot explain why the groups' ratings differed. The groups differed only in how long they kept a palm on the pad.
4. D
  Correct. Sensory adaptation is diminished sensitivity to a stimulus that does not change. The longer volunteers kept a palm on the same steady warmth, the weaker it seemed: a mean of 7.5 after 1 minute, 4.0 after 8 and 2.5 after 15.
At a crowded street fair, Jago is chatting with a friend and tuning out the dozens of conversations around him. When someone at a nearby food stand mentions the small town where Jago grew up, he turns his head at once. Which concept explains this?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Change blindness is failing to notice a change in a scene because attention is elsewhere. Jago did the opposite: he noticed something important to him in a stream of sound he was ignoring.
2. B
  Nothing suggests the mention was louder than the rest of the noise. What made it stand out was its meaning to Jago, which is not a feature of the sound itself.
3. C
  Correct. Attention can be selective, and in the cocktail party effect people pick out their own names or topics that matter to them from a noisy background. His hometown is such a topic, so it pulled his attention even though he was ignoring everything else.
4. D
  Figure and ground is the Gestalt principle of separating an object from its background. It describes how a scene is organized, not why one topic in ignored chatter grabs his attention.
Rosalind, a veterinary technician with 15 years of experience, and Lorcan, in his first week at the clinic, look at the same X-ray of a dog's leg. Rosalind spots a hairline fracture within seconds. Lorcan sees nothing unusual. Which best explains the difference in what they perceive?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Experience is an external factor that filters perception. Years of reading X-rays have built schemas that tell Rosalind what a fracture looks like and where to look for one, so her top-down processing finds what Lorcan's eyes take in but do not recognize.
2. B
  This has it backward. Both see the same features, and what differs is what each brings to the image. Rosalind's knowledge is what lets her see the fracture, so her advantage is top-down.
3. C
  Convergence and retinal disparity are binocular depth cues, and an X-ray is a flat image for everyone. Nothing suggests Lorcan's eyes work differently from Rosalind's.
4. D
  Sensory adaptation is reduced sensitivity after long exposure to an unchanging stimulus. Both looked at the same image for the same short time.
A school district mails two versions of a flyer about a new after-school tutoring program. One version says the program helps 80 percent of students raise their grades. The other says the program fails to help 20 percent of students. Parents who get the first version rate the program much more favorably. Which concept explains the difference in ratings?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Priming is when exposure to one thing makes related ideas readier to come to mind and sway a later judgment. The flyers say nothing about parents' own children. What differs is only how the same number is presented.
2. B
  Correct. Helping 80 percent and failing 20 percent describe the same results. Presenting them as success or as failure is framing, a feature of the circumstances around a decision that changes how people judge it.
3. C
  The availability heuristic leans on whatever example comes to mind first or most vividly. Both groups read about the same program, and the only difference is the wording, which points to framing.
4. D
  The gambler's fallacy is believing a chance event is due after a run of the opposite outcome. Nothing in the flyers involves a sequence of chance events.
At a career fair at Glenhallow College, where education majors outnumber business majors four to one, Percival meets a student in a tailored blazer who talks about stock prices and carries a leather portfolio. Percival decides she must be a business major. Which concept best describes Percival's reasoning?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The availability heuristic judges by the examples that come to mind first or most vividly. Percival is not recalling other students; he is comparing this one student with his picture of a typical business major.
2. B
  An algorithm works through every possible solution step by step until it finds the right one. Percival made a quick judgment from a few features and skipped the most useful fact, that most students there are education majors.
3. C
  Mental set is sticking with an approach that solved earlier problems. Nothing describes Percival solving earlier problems. His error is judging by resemblance and ignoring the numbers.
4. D
  Correct. The representativeness heuristic judges by how closely something matches a prototype or stereotype. The student fits Percival's image of a business major, so he ignores the four-to-one numbers, which by themselves make education the better first guess.
A county pool trains new lifeguards on 20 safety terms. Group 1 counts the letters in each term. Group 2 thinks of a word that rhymes with each term. Group 3 writes how each term would apply to a real emergency at the pool. Without warning, all three groups are later asked to write down as many of the terms as they can. According to the levels of processing model, which order of recall is most likely, from best to worst?
Answer: C.
1. A
  This reverses the model. Counting letters is structural processing, the shallowest level, so Group 1 should recall the least, not the most.
2. B
  Rhyming is phonemic processing, the middle level. Thinking about meaning goes deeper, so Group 3 should beat Group 2.
3. C
  Correct. The levels of processing model ranks encoding from shallowest to deepest: structural (what a word looks like), phonemic (how it sounds) and semantic (what it means). Group 3 processed meaning, Group 2 sound and Group 1 appearance, so recall should follow that order.
4. D
  Group 3's semantic processing should lead, but counting letters is structural, the shallowest level, so Group 1 should come last, behind the rhyming group.
Casimir is daydreaming in class when his teacher asks, "What did I just say?" For a second or two he can still hear her last few words in his head, and he repeats them correctly. Which part of memory let him do this?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Iconic memory is sensory memory for visual images. Casimir is replaying something he heard, not something he saw.
2. B
  Correct. In the multi-store model, sensory memory briefly holds what the senses take in, and echoic memory is its store for sounds. It lasts only a few seconds, long enough for Casimir to catch words he was not attending to.
3. C
  Prospective memory is memory for future actions, such as remembering to turn in a form. Casimir is retrieving something that just happened.
4. D
  Semantic memory is long-term memory for general knowledge. He never processed the teacher's words deeply enough to store them; he caught them from a brief trace of the sound.
To memorize the eight points of a toast she will give at her sister's wedding, Mireille pictures each point at a stop along the walk from her front door to her kitchen: the first at the doormat, the second at the coat hook, and so on. Which encoding strategy is she using?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The method of loci is a mnemonic device that links each item to a place along a familiar route. To recall the toast, Mireille walks the route in her mind and picks up each point where she left it.
2. B
  Chunking groups items into meaningful units, such as reading a long number as three short groups. Mireille is not grouping her points; she is tying each one to a place.
3. C
  Distributed practice spreads study out over time. Nothing describes when or how often she rehearses, only how she links the points to places.
4. D
  The serial position effect is the tendency to remember the first and last items of a list best. It describes a pattern in what people recall, not a strategy someone chooses.
Mr. Tolliver wants to know whether sorting words into categories helps his ninth graders remember them. In week 1, the class studies a list of 24 words in a scrambled order. In week 2, the class studies 24 different words arranged under four headings, such as tools and weather. Each Friday the class writes down as many of that week's words as it can, and recall is higher in week 2. Which change would best improve this study?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Studying the same words a second time would give week 2 an even bigger head start, since the students would already know them. The lists should be different but used equally often in each week.
2. B
  Students who choose a method may differ in other ways, such as how much they like studying, and those differences would then be mixed up with the method.
3. C
  Telling students what to expect invites them to perform the way they think they should, which adds a new reason for week 2 to look better instead of removing one.
4. D
  Correct. As the study was run, the categorized list always came second, so anything about going second, such as practice with the Friday test or an easier set of words, is mixed up with the categories. Having half the class do each kind of list first, which is counterbalancing, keeps the order of the weeks from becoming a confounding variable.
Ingeborg, 41, can name the day of the week for almost any date since she was 11 and describe what she did that day, and her accounts match her old diaries. On standard memory tests for word lists and faces, she scores about average. Which concept best fits Ingeborg's memory?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Nothing describes Ingeborg grouping dates on purpose, and chunking would help her with word lists too. Her strength is limited to the events of her own life.
2. B
  Nothing describes Ingeborg rehearsing her days, and plain repetition would not give her complete storage for decades of events while leaving her average on lists.
3. C
  Iconic memory is a visual sensory store that lasts only a moment. It cannot hold decades of daily events, and her accounts are of her own experiences, not images of diary pages.
4. D
  Correct. Some people show highly superior autobiographical memory, detailed and accurate memory for the events of their own lives. That it does not extend to word lists or faces suggests biological processes that favor storing personal memories, not a better memory for everything.
After surgery to remove a tumor near his hippocampus, Ambrose can still describe his childhood home, his wedding and his years as a mail carrier. But each morning a nurse must introduce herself to him again, and by afternoon he cannot say what he ate for breakfast. Which describes his memory problem?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Anterograde amnesia is the inability to form new memories after an injury or surgery, while older memories survive. Ambrose keeps his past but cannot hold on to the nurse or his breakfast.
2. B
  Retrograde amnesia is the loss of memories from before the injury. Ambrose remembers his childhood, his wedding and his career, so his older memories are intact.
3. C
  Infantile amnesia is the normal inability of adults to remember events from their first few years of life. It does not describe an adult's trouble storing new memories.
4. D
  Alzheimer's disease damages memory gradually, over years. Ambrose's problem began suddenly, right after surgery, which fits amnesia caused by the operation rather than a slowly progressing disease.
Dr. Sorensby asked 150 college students whether they usually end each study session by writing a one-sentence summary of what they covered. Before a midterm, each student predicted his or her score, and the researchers later compared the predictions with actual scores. For the 70 summary writers, the correlation between predicted and actual scores was +0.71, which was statistically significant. For the 80 students who did not write summaries, it was +0.18, which was not statistically significant. Which conclusion do the results best support?
Answer: B.
1. A
  The study reports how strongly predictions were related to scores, not which group scored higher. And students chose whether to write summaries, so even a difference in scores could not show cause.
2. B
  Correct. A strong positive correlation means students who predicted higher scores tended to get higher scores. The summary writers' +0.71 shows their sense of what they knew tracked their actual scores, while +0.18, which was not significant, shows little link for the others. Judging how well you know material is metacognition.
3. C
  A weak correlation shows predictions did not line up with scores, but it says nothing about whether they were too high or too low. Many could have been too high.
4. D
  A positive correlation, even a weak one, runs in the same direction, not the opposite one. Opposite would be a negative correlation, and +0.18 is close to no relationship at all.
A researcher works with Brackenfield Hardware, whose workers learn 15 new four-digit bin codes for the main warehouse. She randomly assigns half of them to then learn 15 different codes for a second warehouse, while the other half watch a 20-minute safety video. The next day, every worker is tested on the main-warehouse codes, and the half who learned the second set remember fewer. What is the independent variable in this study?
Answer: C.
1. A
  This is the outcome that was measured, so it is the dependent variable. The independent variable is what the researcher changed between the two groups.
2. B
  Every worker learned the same main-warehouse codes, so they were held constant. Something that does not differ between the groups cannot be the independent variable.
3. C
  Correct. The researcher changed one thing between the groups, whether workers learned a second set of codes, and measured how many first-set codes they remembered. The result fits retroactive interference, in which newer learning disrupts older memories.
4. D
  The video is what the comparison group did instead, so that both groups spent the same time before the test. It fills the control condition; the variable being tested is whether a second set of codes was learned.
In a series of interviews, Philomena is asked several times to imagine in detail that she got lost in a shopping mall when she was 5. Her parents say it never happened. By the last interview she is fairly sure she remembers it, down to crying beside a fountain. Which concept best explains her growing confidence?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Repression is the psychodynamic idea that distressing memories are forgotten to protect the ego. Philomena is not forgetting a real event; she is coming to remember one that her parents say never happened.
2. B
  Proactive interference is earlier learning disrupting the retrieval of later learning. Her problem is not that she cannot retrieve something but that she now believes something false.
3. C
  Encoding failure explains forgetting something that happened. It cannot explain gaining a vivid memory of something that did not happen.
4. D
  Correct. Memory is constructive, and imagining an event again and again can make it feel familiar enough to be mistaken for a real memory. That is imagination inflation, and the vivid detail she adds does not make the memory accurate.
In one country, adults aged 20 to 30 who take a widely used intelligence test today score well above people of the same ages who took the same test 50 years ago, so the scoring has had to be adjusted to keep the average at 100. Which explanation best fits the rise?
Answer: B.
1. A
  The test is the same, so it did not get easier. And a population's genes do not change in a few decades, which points to the environment rather than heredity.
2. B
  Correct. IQ scores across much of the world have risen over time, which is the Flynn effect. The rise is linked to societal factors such as better nutrition, better health care and higher socioeconomic status.
3. C
  Crystallized intelligence is accumulated knowledge, which can keep growing across a person's life. Both groups were 20 to 30 when they were tested, so growing older cannot explain the gap; the rise is between generations, not within a lifetime.
4. D
  Test-retest reliability asks whether the same people get similar scores when tested again. These are different people tested 50 years apart, and the question is why the average changed.
A local news site reports that the average score on an intelligence test is 4 points higher in Ashby Vale than in nearby Corran Bridge, and it concludes that a student from Ashby Vale will be smarter than a student from Corran Bridge. Corran Bridge has more poverty and fewer school resources. Which is the best response to the conclusion?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. IQ scores tend to vary more within a group than between groups, so a 4-point gap in averages tells you little about any two people, and many Corran Bridge students will outscore many from Ashby Vale. Poverty and unequal schooling can also pull a group's scores down, so the gap need not reflect ability at all.
2. B
  This repeats the news site's mistake. A difference in averages describes the groups, not every member of them, and when scores spread widely within each town, the two towns' scores overlap a great deal.
3. C
  Using the same test does not make the towns' environments the same. Poverty, discrimination and educational inequities can lower scores, and Corran Bridge has more poverty and fewer school resources.
4. D
  A valid test measures what it is designed to measure; it does not have to give every group the same average. A gap can reflect unequal circumstances, which is a different question from validity.
In 2015, Dr. Adaeze Okonkwo-Lind measured grip strength in 300 adults: 100 aged 40, 100 aged 50 and 100 aged 60. In 2025 she found the same 300 adults and measured them again. Which comparison from her study is longitudinal?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Different people of different ages, all measured in the same year, make a cross-sectional comparison, not a longitudinal one.
2. B
  Comparing men and women measured in one year compares existing groups at a single moment. Nobody is followed over time.
3. C
  Both groups were 50 when they were measured, but they are different people, so this compares two groups rather than following anyone over time. Two time points do not make a comparison longitudinal; the same people have to appear at both.
4. D
  Correct. A longitudinal comparison follows the same people over time, and this one sets each adult's score beside that same adult's score ten years later.
In a study of 200 families, children whose parents read aloud to them more often had larger vocabularies at age 5. A news story says this proves that vocabulary is shaped by nurture. In terms of the nature and nurture theme, what is the main problem with that claim?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. In these families the same parents supplied both the reading and the children's genes. A link between reading and vocabulary could come from either source, so the study cannot show that nurture alone is at work.
2. B
  Whether vocabulary grows gradually or in stages is the continuity question, and growth of either kind can be shaped by experience.
3. C
  Two hundred families is a reasonable sample. The problem would remain with 20,000 families, because genes and home experience would still come from the same parents.
4. D
  Reading aloud is something the child experiences, an environmental factor. Calling it nature confuses what the parent does with what the child inherits.
In some communities, caregivers give babies a few minutes of practice every day at sitting propped up and at bearing weight on their legs. Babies in these communities sit and walk a little earlier, on average, than babies in communities without the practice, but they still sit before they walk. Which statement about physical development does this pattern best fit?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Earlier sitting and walking in the practiced communities would not happen if maturation alone set the timing. Experience shifted when the skills appeared.
2. B
  Correct. The sequence held, since babies in every community sat before they walked, while the timing shifted with daily practice. Physical development follows generally the same order, but its timing varies.
3. C
  Nothing here points to a window that closes. Babies without the practice still sat and walked, just a little later on average.
4. D
  Sitting and walking are gross motor skills that develop over the first year or so. They are not reflexes present at birth, like rooting.
During a checkup, a doctor strokes a newborn's cheek several times. Each time, the baby does not turn toward the touch or open his mouth. Why would the doctor pay attention to this?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The rooting reflex is not learned. It is present at birth without any training, which is why a newborn who lacks it stands out.
2. B
  The visual cliff tests depth perception in infants old enough to crawl. Turning toward a touch on the cheek is the rooting reflex, not a depth response.
3. C
  The rooting reflex is there at birth, months before crawling, and it is a reflex rather than a gross motor skill.
4. D
  Correct. The rooting reflex is one of the reflexes that indicate on-track development in a newborn, so a doctor would note that it is missing and look further.
Dr. Anneliese Ruark asked 400 adults aged 40 to 60 how often, when they were 6 to 10 years old, their parents had given them toys usually marketed to children of the other gender. She then compared those answers with how evenly each adult now splits household chores with a partner. Which is the most serious limitation of her measure of childhood toys?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The toy measure depends on recall of events decades earlier. Those reports can be wrong, and adults who now split chores evenly might remember a more mixed childhood to fit how they see themselves.
2. B
  No variable was manipulated, so this is a correlational survey, not an experiment. Random assignment does not apply to a measure of what already happened.
3. C
  Four hundred is a large sample for a survey. The problem is not how many people answered but whether their answers about childhood are accurate.
4. D
  Which toys parents give children is part of socialization, an environmental influence on gender roles, not a biological one.
Zinnia's father calls from work and asks the 3-year-old what she drew at preschool that day. Zinnia holds her drawing up to the phone, says "This one!" and looks puzzled when he asks again. Which feature of preoperational thinking does this show?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Zinnia acts as though her father sees what she sees. Assuming that others share your own view of the world is egocentrism, a hallmark of the preoperational stage.
2. B
  Animism is giving lifeless things feelings or intentions. Nothing suggests Zinnia thinks the phone itself is alive; she is showing the drawing to her father.
3. C
  Children grasp that people and objects still exist out of sight by about age 2, before the preoperational stage begins. Zinnia is talking with her father on purpose, so she knows he still exists.
4. D
  Conservation means knowing that a quantity is unchanged when its shape or layout changes. Her mistake is about what her father can see, not about quantities.
Piaget proposed that not everyone reaches formal operational thinking. Which observation of an adult would best fit that proposal?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Weaker learning of new names alongside a growing vocabulary fits typical adult change in fluid and crystallized intelligence, not a missing Piagetian stage.
2. B
  Conservation is reached in the concrete operational stage, so this shows she got at least that far. It says nothing about formal operations.
3. C
  Correct. Formal operational thinking is the ability to reason abstractly and hypothetically. An adult who manages concrete problems but not hypothetical ones fits Piaget's claim that some people never reach that stage.
4. D
  Forgetting where she parked is an everyday memory lapse. It does not involve abstract or hypothetical reasoning.
Researchers plan to record the babbling of 30 infants at the Hazelbrook Child Care Center. The center's director reads the study plan and signs one consent form for all of the infants in her care. The researchers plan to begin recording the next day. Which ethical problem should be fixed before they start?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Debriefing comes after participation, and infants are too young to understand an explanation anyway. The missing step comes before the study.
2. B
  Correct. Infants cannot consent for themselves, so informed consent has to come from each infant's parent or legal guardian. A child care director's signature does not replace it.
3. C
  Whether babbling happens in every culture is a research question, not an ethical requirement for running the study.
4. D
  Random assignment belongs to experiments. This is an observational study, and the lack of random assignment is not an ethical problem.
Saoirse, 20, grew up in a religious community. She spent two years reading about and visiting several faiths, then chose one to commit to, and she says it now feels like her own. On careers, she has taken classes in accounting, law and design this year and is still deciding, though she is actively talking with people in each field. Which pair of identity statuses best describes her?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Foreclosure is committing without exploring. Saoirse spent two years exploring other faiths before she chose, so her commitment is achievement even though she grew up religious.
2. B
  Correct. She explored before committing to a faith, which is achievement. On careers she is exploring actively and has not committed yet, which is moratorium.
3. C
  Diffusion is neither exploring nor committing. She is actively exploring three fields, which makes her undecided state moratorium.
4. D
  This reverses the two. She has already committed on religion after exploring, and she has not committed to a career.
At the child care center of Ravelston University, researchers randomly assigned 60 toddlers, all children of the university's faculty, to one of two conditions. When each toddler's parent left the room, the toddler was handed either the blanket from his or her own bed or a new blanket of the same kind. Toddlers given their own blankets cried for less time, and the researchers concluded that a familiar object eases separation distress for toddlers everywhere. Which is the most serious problem with that conclusion?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The conclusion reaches toddlers everywhere, but every toddler came from one center and from families who work at one university. Attachment behavior varies by culture and by family circumstances, so the result may not generalize beyond toddlers like these.
2. B
  The toddlers handed a new blanket are the comparison group. Because both groups got a blanket, a difference in crying can be traced to the blanket's being familiar.
3. C
  Random assignment split the toddlers into groups by chance, which tends to make them alike at the start. Which blanket each group got is the independent variable, not a flaw in the groups.
4. D
  Crying time can be timed, and it is the dependent variable here. The study measured it and compared the two groups.
Maelis, 6, cries and backs away whenever she sees a garden hose. Last summer a hose burst while she was holding it, and a sudden blast of icy water made her scream in fright. Which explanation would a traditional behaviorist most likely give for her crying?
Answer: D.
1. A
  An expectation is a mental process. Traditional behaviorists focused on observable behavior and left beliefs and expectations out of their explanations.
2. B
  Unconscious conflict is a psychodynamic explanation, not a behavioral one.
3. C
  An inborn temperament is a biological explanation, and it does not explain why her fear is of hoses in particular and began only after the hose burst.
4. D
  Correct. A traditional behaviorist would explain the crying as a classically conditioned response: the hose, paired with the startling blast of icy water, now sets off fear on its own. That account uses only observable stimuli and responses.
In an illustrative study, volunteers saw pictures, each followed by a mild electric shock to the wrist. Fear responses to pictures of spiders were acquired in fewer pairings than fear responses to pictures of mushrooms, and they lasted longer after the shocks stopped. Spider fears took about three pairings to appear and mushroom fears about eight. Which concept best explains the difference?
Answer: B.
1. A
  One-trial learning means a single pairing is enough and more pairings do not strengthen the association. Here both fears took several pairings; spiders just took fewer.
2. B
  Correct. Biological preparedness means organisms are predisposed to learn some stimulus-response pairings more quickly than others. Fear of spiders came faster and held longer, which fits that pattern.
3. C
  Generalization is responding to stimuli similar to a conditioned stimulus. Spiders and mushrooms were each paired with shock directly, and they do not resemble each other.
4. D
  Spontaneous recovery is the return of an extinguished response after a pause. The study compared how quickly each fear was acquired and how long it lasted, not a response coming back.
For two weeks, a parent counted how many tantrums her 5-year-old had. Starting in week 3, each tantrum cost the child 10 minutes of that evening's tablet time.
- Week 1: 13 tantrums
- Week 2: 14 tantrums
- Week 3: 9 tantrums
- Week 4: 6 tantrums
- Week 5: 4 tantrums
- Week 6: 2 tantrums
Which concept do these data best show?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant and makes a behavior more likely. Here tantrums became less likely, and what was removed was pleasant.
2. B
  Positive punishment adds something unpleasant after a behavior. Nothing was added here; tablet time was taken away.
3. C
  Correct. Something the child likes, tablet time, was taken away after each tantrum, and tantrums became less frequent. Removing a pleasant stimulus to weaken a behavior is negative punishment.
4. D
  Extinction would mean simply withholding whatever had been reinforcing the tantrums. Here a new consequence, losing tablet time, followed each one.
Delphine, a trainer, blows a whistle each time she hands a young sea lion a fish. Later she blows the whistle the moment the sea lion does what she asks and gives the fish a few seconds afterward. Eventually the sea lion keeps performing for the whistle even on turns when no fish follows. In this training, what are the fish and the whistle?
Answer: C.
1. A
  This reverses them. Food meets a biological need with no learning, so the fish is primary; the whistle matters only because it was linked with fish.
2. B
  Both the fish and the whistle are added after the behavior and make it more likely, so both are positive. Negative reinforcement takes away something unpleasant.
3. C
  Correct. Fish meets a biological need and works without any learning, so it is a primary reinforcer. The whistle gained its power by being paired with fish, which makes it a secondary reinforcer.
4. D
  Responses are things the sea lion does. The fish and the whistle are consequences the trainer delivers, so they are reinforcers, not responses.
A young orangutan at a zoo wants fruit lying outside her enclosure, beyond the reach of either of the two short sticks she has. After a few failed reaches, she stops and sits still for several minutes. Then she suddenly fits one stick into the hollow end of the other and uses the longer tool to pull the fruit in. No keeper or other orangutan has ever shown her this. Which kind of learning does this best show?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Shaping needs someone to reinforce successive approximations. No one rewarded her partial attempts; she produced the whole solution at once.
2. B
  No keeper or other orangutan ever showed her the trick, so there was no model to watch, and vicarious conditioning also needs a consequence seen happening to someone else.
3. C
  Latent learning is knowledge picked up earlier without reinforcement that shows itself later, like a cognitive map of a route. Nothing suggests she had learned this solution earlier; it came all at once after she stopped trying.
4. D
  Correct. A solution that appears suddenly, without any association, consequence or model, is insight learning.
On her first day volunteering at a hospital, Imelda sees a nurse answer a worried father in one short sentence and hurry away. Imelda decides the nurse is a cold person. She does not know the nurse was rushing to a patient whose heart had just stopped. Which bias does Imelda's judgment show?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Imelda explains the nurse's behavior by personality and overlooks the strong situation behind it. Overestimating disposition and underestimating the situation when explaining others is the fundamental attribution error.
2. B
  Self-serving bias is explaining your own successes and failures in ways that protect your self-image. Imelda is judging someone else.
3. C
  Actor/observer bias contrasts how people explain their own behavior with how they explain the same behavior in others. Imelda is not explaining anything she did herself, so only the error about the other person is shown.
4. D
  The just-world phenomenon is believing people get what they deserve, often by blaming victims. Nobody here is being blamed for a misfortune.
Researchers read transcripts of 300 post-game press conferences given by college basketball coaches over two seasons. For each one, they coded whether the coach explained the result by the team's own effort and skill or by outside factors such as referees and injuries. Coaches credited their own team after 81 percent of wins and blamed outside factors after 64 percent of losses. Which is a key strength of studying these transcripts instead of surveying the coaches about how they explain wins and losses?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Coding needs clear rules, so that different coders would classify the same explanation the same way. Transcripts make those rules more necessary, not less.
2. B
  Coding records does not manipulate anything, so this study is correlational. It can describe a pattern in the explanations but cannot establish cause.
3. C
  Correct. A coach asked in a survey how he explains wins and losses may give the answer that sounds fair. Explanations given at ordinary press conferences, before any study was planned, are free of that pressure.
4. D
  The press conferences came from college basketball coaches, so the results cannot be extended to coaches in other sports without more evidence.
Hesper believes that whether she gets hired depends mostly on luck and on knowing the right people. Before a job interview, she does not research the company or practice her answers, saying it would make no difference. She has never applied for a job before. Which concept best describes her belief?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. She believes outcomes are controlled by forces outside herself, luck and connections, so effort seems pointless. That is an external locus of control.
2. B
  Self-serving bias is taking credit for successes and blaming outside factors for failures. She has not yet succeeded or failed at anything.
3. C
  A pessimistic explanatory style explains bad events by lasting, far-reaching causes, often in oneself. Hesper has never applied for a job, so she has no past failure to explain. Her belief is about who controls outcomes before anything has happened.
4. D
  The fundamental attribution error is overestimating disposition when explaining other people's behavior. She is not explaining anyone else's behavior.
Leander tells everyone that drivers should never use a phone behind the wheel, but he often reads texts while waiting at red lights. He feels uncomfortable whenever he thinks about it. Which response would ease his discomfort by changing his behavior rather than his attitude?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Redefining what counts as using a phone changes his belief so it fits what he does. That reduces dissonance through the attitude, not the action.
2. B
  Deciding the rule matters less also adjusts his thinking to excuse a behavior he keeps doing.
3. C
  Pointing to others who do the same thing justifies the behavior, which eases the conflict without changing what he does.
4. D
  Correct. Cognitive dissonance can be reduced by changing either actions or attitudes. Putting the phone out of reach changes his behavior so it matches his belief.
Aurelio and Svetlana, nurses at the same hospital, both dislike its new electronic charting system. Each must write one short piece for the staff newsletter. Aurelio's supervisor assigns him a piece praising the system. Svetlana picks that same piece herself from a list of topics, and no one rewards either nurse. The two pieces say nearly the same things. Based on cognitive dissonance theory, which outcome is most likely?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The same piece produces different amounts of dissonance depending on whether the writer has an outside reason for writing it.
2. B
  Being assigned the piece gives Aurelio an outside explanation for it: he had to write it. With that justification there is little conflict to resolve, so his attitude has the least reason to change.
3. C
  Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort that comes when actions and attitudes conflict, so praising something one dislikes can create it.
4. D
  Correct. Svetlana chose to argue against her own view with no requirement or reward to explain it. That leaves a sharp conflict between her action and her attitude, and moving her attitude toward what she wrote is the easiest way to reduce the discomfort.
Questions 51 to 53 refer to the following.
Researchers worked with a city literacy program that needed volunteers to read aloud to children at a one-hour library event. Research assistants approached 180 adults, one at a time, outside the public library in Quillmere. Before each approach, a random number generator assigned the adult to one of three conditions.
- Large request first: the adult was asked to tutor a child for two hours every week for a full school year. All 60 adults in this condition said no, and each was then asked to read at the event.
- Small request first: the adult was asked to wear a sticker supporting the program. All 60 agreed, and each was then asked to read at the event.
- Direct: the adult was asked only to read at the event.
Each adult asked to read could volunteer 0, 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. Before the study began, the researchers' plan was approved by their university's institutional review board. The adults were not told that they were in a study, and the assistants recorded only each adult's condition and minutes, never a name or a description. The minutes volunteered in each condition are shown.
- Large request first: mean 31 minutes, standard deviation 22 minutes
- Small request first: mean 27 minutes, standard deviation 9 minutes
- Direct: mean 12 minutes, standard deviation 16 minutes
Both request-first conditions had significantly higher means than the direct condition. The two request-first conditions did not differ significantly from each other.
Which persuasion technique did the researchers use in the large-request-first condition?
Answer: B.
1. A
  The foot-in-the-door technique starts with a small request and follows with a larger one. That describes the sticker condition, not this one.
2. B
  Correct. Asking for something large that is likely to be refused, then following with a smaller request, is the door-in-the-face technique.
3. C
  Conformity is going along with what a group does. Each adult was approached alone and saw nothing of what others decided.
4. D
  The halo effect is letting one positive trait of a speaker color the whole message. Nothing about the assistants' appeal or looks was varied; the order of the requests was.
Uses the material above question 51.

The adults never agreed to take part in a study. Which fact best explains why the review board could still approve the plan?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Random assignment is part of the design, and it makes the conditions comparable. It says nothing about whether the adults agreed to be studied.
2. B
  Correct. Informed consent is the usual rule, but a review board can let researchers go without it when a study carries minimal risk and protects participants' identities. Being asked to wear a sticker or to read at a library event is an everyday request, and the assistants recorded no names or descriptions.
3. C
  Turning down a request is not informed consent, because no adult knew that the request was part of research. What made the plan acceptable was its low risk and the protection of the adults' identities.
4. D
  A good cause does not by itself excuse researchers from protecting participants. The review board's approval rested on the low risk of the requests and on the fact that no adult could be identified.
Uses the material above question 51.

Which statement about the standard deviations is accurate?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The smallest standard deviation, 9 minutes, belongs to the small-request-first condition, so its values sat closest to their mean.
2. B
  A high mean says nothing about spread. With the largest standard deviation, 22 minutes, the large-request-first condition had the most spread, not the least.
3. C
  A standard deviation describes how far values typically fall from the mean; it is not itself a typical value. The direct condition's mean was 12 minutes.
4. D
  The summary reports that this difference was statistically significant. A larger standard deviation does not by itself rule out a significant difference.
Evrard, 9, breaks a neighbor's window with a baseball and then lies about it. According to humanistic theory, which response from his father would best support Evrard's self-actualizing tendency?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Making acceptance depend on grades is conditional regard, which humanistic theory says works against self-actualization.
2. B
  Saying nothing offers neither acceptance nor guidance. Unconditional regard is active warmth and acceptance, not silence.
3. C
  Correct. Humanistic theory holds that unconditional regard, acceptance of the person that does not depend on behavior, supports the self-actualizing tendency. The father can reject the lie without withdrawing acceptance of his son.
4. D
  Hidden guilt and unconscious motives belong to psychodynamic theory, not to the humanistic view.
Dr. Halloran Teague develops a projective test in which adults tell stories about ambiguous drawings, and trained scorers rate each story for signs of hidden hostility. Which result would be the best evidence that the test is valid?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Similar scores across two sittings show the test is reliable over time. A test can give consistent scores and still not measure hostility.
2. B
  Agreement between scorers shows that the scoring is reliable. Consistent scoring does not show that the scores reflect hostility.
3. C
  People finding the drawings meaningful describes how the test feels to take, not whether its scores track hostility.
4. D
  Correct. Validity means a test measures what it claims to measure. Scores that line up with an independent judgment of hostility, made by people who did not know the results, are evidence of that.
Which example best shows reciprocal determinism as social-cognitive theory describes it?
Answer: B.
1. A
  A stable pattern across settings and years describes a trait. It says nothing about how Yolanthe, her behavior and her surroundings shape one another.
2. B
  Correct. Reciprocal determinism says personal factors, behavior and environment influence one another. Her confidence (personal) leads to joining (behavior), the coaching (environment) builds her skill, and her success feeds back into her confidence.
3. C
  Praise strengthening a behavior is operant conditioning, an influence that runs one way, from the environment to behavior.
4. D
  An unconscious conflict is a psychodynamic explanation, not a social-cognitive one.
Researchers gave a Big Five inventory to 240 college students and recorded three other measures over one semester. Correlations with agreeableness:
- Hours of volunteer work: r = +0.31, statistically significant
- Arguments with a roommate, from a weekly diary: r = -0.27, statistically significant
- Semester grade point average: r = +0.04, not statistically significant
Which conclusion do these results best support?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. The significant negative correlation means higher agreeableness went with fewer reported arguments. The grade correlation of +0.04 was tiny and not statistically significant, so the data show no clear relationship there.
2. B
  A negative correlation is a real relationship in which one variable goes down as the other goes up. Only a correlation near zero suggests no relationship.
3. C
  A correlation of +0.04 that is not statistically significant is too small to show a real link. Reading it as a clear difference ignores the significance result.
4. D
  These are correlations among measured variables, and nobody manipulated agreeableness. A link with volunteering cannot show cause; a third factor, such as how much free time students have, could affect both.
Lysander works alone overnight as a security guard in an empty office tower. He is wide awake, but hour after hour nothing happens, and he feels dull and restless. He turns the music up, climbs the stairs at a brisk pace and sketches the view from the lobby, though none of this is part of his job or earns him anything. Which theory of motivation best explains his behavior?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Drive-reduction theory explains behavior that satisfies a physical need and restores homeostasis. Lysander is wide awake, and nothing he does meets a physical need such as hunger or thirst.
2. B
  Correct. Arousal theory says people seek an optimal level of arousal. With too little stimulation on a quiet night, Lysander looks for activity that raises his arousal.
3. C
  Incentive theory explains behavior pulled by rewards, and none of these activities earns him anything.
4. D
  Lewin's theory is about conflicts between choices, such as two attractive options. Lysander is not torn between options; he is understimulated.
In an illustrative experiment, 90 college students played an online ball-passing game with two other players, who were actually computer programs. A computer randomly assigned each student to be included, receiving the ball about a third of the time, or excluded, receiving it only twice at the start. Afterward, each student was offered a chance to sign up for campus clubs, and excluded students signed up for more clubs. What is the main purpose of the included condition?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Club sign-ups are the dependent variable, measured in both conditions. The included condition is a comparison group, not a measure.
2. B
  Random assignment is what makes the two conditions comparable at the start. A comparison group needs it rather than replacing it.
3. C
  Which students were recruited decides whom the results apply to. Adding a second condition does nothing to make the sample representative.
4. D
  Correct. The included condition is the control condition. Because both groups played the same game, a difference in sign-ups can be traced to being excluded rather than to playing at all.
Some early theories of emotion held that a bodily response comes first and the felt emotion follows from noticing it. Which finding would most directly challenge that view?
Answer: C.
1. A
  When this finding appears, it supports the view, since a change in the face comes first and the emotion follows. Research on the facial-feedback hypothesis has produced mixed results, but a positive result here would not challenge a body-first theory.
2. B
  Arousal from exercise being labeled as anger fits theories in which a cognitive label is needed, and the bodily arousal still came first. It does not show emotion without the body's signal.
3. C
  Correct. If the feeling follows from noticing the body's response, people who cannot sense that response should feel weaker emotions. Emotions of normal strength without those sensations cut against the view.
4. D
  A quick bodily response to a frightening sight is what a body-first theory predicts. It fits the view rather than challenging it.
Questions 61 to 62 refer to the following.
Illustrative numbers, modeled on research linking stress to slower healing. Dr. Ysolde Quennell recruited six volunteer accountants at Pellworth Tax Services. Each accountant read and signed a consent form that described the procedure. A nurse made a tiny, standard skin puncture on each accountant's forearm twice: once in July, the firm's quietest month, and once in the week before the April tax-filing deadline, its busiest. For three of the accountants the July puncture came first; for the other three the deadline-week puncture came first. The nurse then checked each wound every day and recorded the number of days until it had fully closed.
- Accountant 1: 7 days in July, 9 days in deadline week
- Accountant 2: 6 days in July, 10 days in deadline week
- Accountant 3: 8 days in July, 11 days in deadline week
- Accountant 4: 7 days in July, 8 days in deadline week
- Accountant 5: 6 days in July, 8 days in deadline week
- Accountant 6: 8 days in July, 8 days in deadline week
What was the mean number of days the wounds took to close in deadline week?
Answer: D.
1. A
  2 is how many more days the wounds took on average in deadline week than in July (a mean of 9 against a mean of 7). The question asks for the deadline-week mean itself.
2. B
  8 is the mode, the value that appears most often (three accountants took 8 days). The mean adds every value and divides by how many there are.
3. C
  8.5 is the median. Put in order, the times are 8, 8, 8, 9, 10 and 11, and the middle two, 8 and 9, average to 8.5. The question asks for the mean.
4. D
  Correct. The six deadline-week times add to 9 + 10 + 11 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 54 days, and 54 divided by 6 is 9.
Uses the material above question 61.

Which conclusion from health psychology do these results illustrate best?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Healing got slower, not faster, in deadline week for five of the six accountants. Calling a stressor eustress describes how a person views it, and it does not mean the stressor speeds healing.
2. B
  In the general adaptation syndrome, the greatest susceptibility to illness comes in the exhaustion phase, not the alarm reaction. The alarm reaction is the first fight-flight-freeze response when a stressor is met.
3. C
  Correct. Stress is linked to immune suppression, a weaker immune response, and the wounds took longer to close when the accountants were under deadline stress than in their quiet month.
4. D
  A work deadline is not a traumatic stressor, and stressors do not have to be traumatic to affect health. Smaller, everyday stressors can build up and matter too.
When the paper mill where she works announces that half its jobs will be cut next month, Wynona phones coworkers over the next week to see how they are holding up, brings a meal to one who lives alone, and invites two of them over on the weekend. Which reaction to stress does her behavior show best?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. Tend-and-befriend is reacting to stress by tending to the needs of others and seeking connection with them. Checking on coworkers, bringing a meal and inviting them over all fit.
2. B
  Problem-focused coping would mean working on the problem itself, such as applying for other jobs or asking which positions will be cut. Nothing she does addresses the job cuts.
3. C
  Fight-or-flight is the body's rapid arousal to confront or escape an immediate threat. Wynona is not fighting or fleeing anything; over a week she reaches out to coworkers and looks after them.
4. D
  Eustress is a stressor viewed as motivating. Nothing suggests Wynona welcomes the cuts as a challenge, and her behavior is about the people around her, not about meeting a goal.
The principal of Wexmoor Middle School wants a low-cost weekly activity that will raise students' subjective well-being. Which proposal does research in positive psychology support best?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Venting about annoyances is not one of the positive subjective experiences positive psychology links to higher well-being. Many students assume letting frustration out must help, but the research finding is about expressing gratitude.
2. B
  Screening for a disorder can be valuable, but it looks for what is going wrong. It does not raise anyone's well-being, which is the goal the principal named and the focus of positive psychology.
3. C
  Posttraumatic growth may follow trauma or stress, but it is not a tool to be set off on purpose. Loading students with stress so they might grow misreads the idea and could harm them.
4. D
  Correct. Expressing gratitude is a positive subjective experience that increases subjective well-being, and a weekly thank-you note costs almost nothing.
Anselm and Wilhelmina were both trapped overnight in their cars when a landslide buried a mountain road. A year later, Anselm says his life is just as it was before: the same job, the same mood and the same friends. Wilhelmina says she values each ordinary day more than she used to and has started training as an emergency medical technician. Which statement best applies positive psychology to the two of them?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Doing well after a trauma is not the same as growing from it. Anselm has come back to his old life; only Wilhelmina describes changes for the better beyond it.
2. B
  This reverses the idea. Getting back to how things were is recovery. Growth means the person reports positive changes that go beyond life before the trauma.
3. C
  Correct. Posttraumatic growth is a positive change that results after trauma, such as a greater appreciation of life or a new direction. Wilhelmina reports both. Anselm has recovered, which is good news, but returning to where he started is not growth.
4. D
  Posttraumatic stress disorder involves psychological distress after a trauma, such as flashbacks, hypervigilance, insomnia or emotional detachment. Wilhelmina describes none of these, and a change in how someone lives is not a symptom by itself.
Dr. Cassius Abernathy wants to measure how grateful adults feel. His online survey asks, "Most kind and decent people feel thankful every day for what they have. How thankful do you feel each day?" Adults answer on a scale from 1 to 7, and the 400 who respond score a mean of 6.3. Which is the strongest criticism of this survey?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Rating scales of 1 to 7 are common and work well for feelings like this. The number of points is not the problem with this question.
2. B
  Correct. The opening sentence tells respondents that kind and decent people feel thankful every day, so answering low would mean admitting to not being one of them. Wording like this pushes answers in one direction, and the high mean may reflect the wording rather than how grateful the adults are.
3. C
  Self-report is the usual way to measure subjective experiences, including gratitude and well-being. It has weaknesses, but it does not fail completely, and the clear weakness here is the wording.
4. D
  Control groups belong to experiments, where one group is compared with another. A survey that describes one group's answers does not need one. This confuses the two kinds of research.
Two psychologists discuss Ottavio, who has posttraumatic stress disorder after being robbed on a train platform. One says that train platforms became linked with terror during the robbery, so they now set off fear on their own. The other points to Ottavio's belief that he is never safe anywhere and that the robbery was his fault. A third psychologist plans to treat him using both explanations. Which approach is the third psychologist taking?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. An eclectic approach uses more than one psychological perspective to understand and treat a client, and most psychologists work this way. The first explanation is behavioral, a learned association with a stimulus, and the second is cognitive, a maladaptive belief, and she plans to use both.
2. B
  The biopsychosocial model combines biological, psychological and sociocultural factors. Both explanations here are psychological, one behavioral and one cognitive, and neither names a biological or social factor.
3. C
  The diathesis-stress model needs a genetic vulnerability combined with stress. Nothing here mentions an inherited vulnerability.
4. D
  The humanistic perspective explains disorders through a lack of social support and unfulfilled potential. Accepting colleagues' ideas is not that perspective, and neither explanation is humanistic.
For eight months, Lucan has spent nearly every waking hour restoring old motorcycles, a hobby many people in his town share. He has stopped showing up for work, has been evicted for unpaid rent, and has let his phone service be cut off. He says he has never felt better. Which factor gives a psychologist the strongest reason to consider whether Lucan has a psychological disorder?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Perception of distress is about how distressed the person himself feels, not how others would feel in his place. Lucan says he has never felt better.
2. B
  The stem says many people in his town share the hobby, so the hobby itself does not deviate from the norms around him.
3. C
  Correct. Level of dysfunction asks whether a person can still function in daily life. Losing his job, his home and his phone service shows serious dysfunction, even though he reports no distress.
4. D
  Distress, dysfunction and deviation are each weighed. A person can report feeling fine and still show enough dysfunction to raise the question of a disorder.
Dr. Isidore Fennimore, who runs the employee wellness office at a large company, wants to know whether learning that a coworker has been diagnosed with a depressive disorder changes how employees rate the coworker's work. He emails all 300 employees an invitation and adds that their managers will receive a list of who took part. Those who join will sign a consent form, may stop at any time and will appear in the records only as a number. Which ethical problem does his plan raise?
Answer: B.
1. A
  A placebo controls for expectations in a test of a treatment, and this study tests no treatment. Adding one would leave the problem in the invitation untouched.
2. B
  Correct. Informed consent has to be voluntary. Employees who know their managers will see who took part may join to look cooperative, so their agreement would not be freely given even with a consent form, a right to stop and code numbers.
3. C
  Research on stigma toward diagnosed people is allowed when it follows ethical guidelines, and it helps show the negative consequences that a diagnosis can carry. The problem here is how employees are recruited.
4. D
  Adults give consent for themselves. Consent from a parent or guardian, with the person's own assent, is for minors and others who cannot consent on their own.
For the past year, Evander has been certain that his coworkers at the bus depot are scheming against him and have hidden microphones in his car. His sentences mix words that have nothing to do with each other, such as "ladders bargain the soup kindly," and some afternoons he stands with one arm raised for an hour, not moving and not answering when spoken to. He has had no periods of unusually high energy or of depressed mood. Which disorder do his symptoms fit best?
Answer: D.
1. A
  Bipolar I disorder requires periods of mania, and Evander has had no periods of unusually high energy. His fixed false belief, jumbled speech and motionless spells are not mood symptoms.
2. B
  Bipolar II disorder involves periods of depression along with milder periods of high energy. Evander has had neither, and his symptoms point elsewhere.
3. C
  Generalized anxiety disorder is long-lasting worry spread across many things rather than one. Evander holds one fixed false belief, a delusion, and word salad and catatonic stupor are not symptoms of anxiety.
4. D
  Correct. A delusion of persecution, word salad and catatonic stupor are symptoms of schizophrenia, and no mood episodes explain them.
Clementine, 17, is at a typical weight for her height. Several times a week she secretly eats a very large amount of food in a short time and then makes herself vomit, and she feels deeply ashamed afterward. Which disorder do these symptoms fit best?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Anorexia nervosa involves severely restricting food, which leads to a dangerously low body weight. Clementine is at a typical weight, and she eats large amounts before purging.
2. B
  Her repeated behavior is about food and is followed by shame. Obsessive-compulsive disorder involves intrusive thoughts and compulsions meant to address them, which do not describe eating and purging.
3. C
  Correct. Eating a large amount in a short time and then purging, often while keeping a typical weight, is the pattern of bulimia nervosa, a feeding and eating disorder.
4. D
  Shame after an episode is not the same as a lasting sad, empty or irritable mood with changes that affect how she functions. The eating and purging pattern points to an eating disorder.
Benedikta is often flooded with images of herself shouting cruel insults at strangers at the pharmacy. She knows the images make little sense, but they frighten her, so each time one comes she silently counts to 40 by fives, starting over whenever she loses count, and she is late to work most days. Apart from the counting, she is relaxed about how other people do things and does not insist on order or rules. Which disorder do her symptoms fit best?
Answer: D.
1. A
  The similar name is the trap. Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, in the anxious or fearful cluster, is an enduring, pervasive pattern of rigidity about order and rules. Benedikta is relaxed about order, and her problem is intrusive images and the counting they drive.
2. B
  Generalized anxiety disorder is long-lasting worry spread across many things at once. Benedikta's fear is tied to one kind of intrusive image and one repeated behavior.
3. C
  A specific phobia is fear of a particular object or situation, such as heights, which the person avoids. She is not avoiding any object or place; an intrusive thought drives a repeated behavior.
4. D
  Correct. The images of herself shouting insults are obsessions, intrusive thoughts, and the counting she repeats is a compulsion meant to address them. Losing time and arriving late most days shows the impairment.
Barnaby wants to quit smoking. His therapist has him smoke very quickly, one puff every few seconds, until he feels sick and dizzy. They repeat this over several sessions, until the smell of a cigarette alone makes him queasy. Which treatment approach is the therapist using?
Answer: B.
1. A
  Systematic desensitization pairs something feared with relaxation, step by step, to reduce a fear. Barnaby's therapist builds up a bad feeling toward smoking instead of calming a fear.
2. B
  Correct. Aversion therapy, a technique of applied behavior analysis, pairs an unwanted behavior with something unpleasant. Smoking is paired with nausea until cigarettes themselves bring on the queasy feeling.
3. C
  A token economy gives tokens for wanted behaviors that can be traded for privileges. Nothing here rewards Barnaby; the therapy works by making smoking unpleasant.
4. D
  Biofeedback shows a person a live signal from the body, such as heart rate, so they can learn to regulate it. No signal is shown to Barnaby.
Dr. Ingrid Solvang tests transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for major depressive disorder. A computer randomly assigns 64 adults to 20 sessions of real TMS or 20 sham sessions, in which the device clicks and taps the scalp the same way but sends no magnetic pulses. Participants do not know which kind they receive. Why did Dr. Solvang use sham sessions rather than a group that received no sessions at all?
Answer: A.
1. A
  Correct. People who sit through 20 sessions and believe they might be getting a treatment can improve from that expectation alone, which is the placebo effect. Sham sessions give both groups the same visits and the same hope, so a larger improvement with real TMS points to the magnetic pulses.
2. B
  A sham group can improve too, from expecting help, from the attention of 20 visits or from time passing. The sham sessions are there so that those changes show up in both groups, not to keep anyone's depression fixed.
3. C
  A sham condition does not reduce the number of participants a study needs. Its purpose is to make the two groups' experiences the same except for the pulses.
4. D
  Participants in every condition must give informed consent, including consent to the chance of receiving sham sessions. The sham is about controlling expectations, not about skipping consent.
Researchers test a new medication for major depressive disorder at a clinic that also offers free counseling. A review board approves the plan, a computer randomly assigns half of the adults to the medication and half to a placebo pill for 12 weeks, and every participant is checked every two weeks. The consent form explains that each person may receive the medication or a placebo, and it also says that anyone who leaves the study before week 12 will lose his or her place in the clinic's free counseling program. Which change would best bring this study in line with ethical guidelines?
Answer: C.
1. A
  Confidentiality matters, but nothing suggests names are being shared. Adding it would not touch the real problem, which is the penalty for leaving.
2. B
  Giving one group no pills would change the comparison group, but anyone who wanted to stop would still lose counseling. The problem is the penalty for leaving, not the placebo.
3. C
  Correct. Participants must be free to withdraw at any time without penalty. Tying the counseling program to staying in the study pressures people to continue, so the plan should let anyone leave and keep the care he or she would otherwise receive.
4. D
  Debriefing follows deception, and these participants were told they might receive a placebo. Explaining the study at week 12 would do nothing for someone who wanted to stop at week 4.

Section II: Free Response

2 questions · 70 minutes

Question 1: Article Analysis Question 7 points

Read the summary below of a research article about home practice in therapy for panic disorder. Then, using the source provided, respond to all parts of the question.

Source

Introduction

Panic disorder involves panic attacks: sudden, overwhelming waves of fear, felt in the body and the mind, that arrive without warning. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is often used to treat it, and CBT therapists usually give clients practice to do between sessions. A client might write down the thoughts that come with an attack and test whether they are accurate, or go into a situation the client has been avoiding. In this study, researchers examined whether clients who complete more of this practice end treatment with milder panic symptoms. Their hypothesis was that the more between-session practice assignments a client completes, the milder the client's panic symptoms at the end of treatment.

Participants

Over 14 months, 188 adults who were starting a 12-week course of CBT for panic disorder at two outpatient clinics in the city of Wrenford were invited to take part, and 152 agreed. Each had been diagnosed with panic disorder by a licensed psychologist using a structured diagnostic interview. The 152 participants were 19 to 61 years old (mean age 34.2); 108 were women and 44 were men. Therapy at both clinics was offered only in English, so all participants spoke English. Adults who were taking medication for anxiety at the start were not included, and none of the 152 participants started one during treatment.

Of the 152 participants, 23 attended fewer than 10 of their 12 sessions. They were left out of the analysis, which included the remaining 129: 92 women and 37 men.

Method

An institutional review board reviewed and approved the study before any client was invited. Each client read and signed a consent form explaining that the therapist's records of their practice and their questionnaire scores would be used for research, that taking part added no tasks beyond their usual treatment, and that they could decline or withdraw at any time with no change to their treatment. Before any records left the clinics, clients' names were removed and each record was labeled with a code number.

The researchers did not change anyone's treatment. At the end of each of sessions 1 through 11, the therapist gave the client two assignments for the coming week:

a thought record: each time panic symptoms began, write down the frightening thought (such as "My heart is racing, so I must be having a heart attack") and a more accurate one
an exposure practice: go into one situation the client had been avoiding, such as a crowded grocery store, and stay until the fear eased

At the start of the next session, the therapist marked each assignment on a checklist as complete or not complete. A thought record counted as complete if the client brought it in filled out. In a week with no panic symptoms, it counted as complete if the client had written down one worried thought about having an attack and a more realistic one beside it. An exposure practice counted if the client had logged its date, place and length. If a client missed a session, the assignments due that day were checked at the next session the client attended. Assignments that would have been given at a missed session, and any that were never checked, were marked not complete. Each client's homework completion was the number of the 22 assignments marked complete.

Clients filled out a 7-item panic severity questionnaire at their first session and again one week after their final session. Each item, such as how often attacks occurred and how much the client avoided places because of them, was rated from 0 (none) to 4 (extreme), giving a total from 0 to 28. Higher scores mean more severe panic symptoms.

Results and Discussion

The 129 clients completed from 2 to 22 of their assignments (mean 13.6, standard deviation 5.1). The correlation between the number of assignments completed and panic severity one week after the final session was r = -0.44, which was statistically significant. The correlation between the number of assignments completed and panic severity at the first session was r = -0.04, which was not statistically significant.

Panic severity by homework completion
Assignments completed (of 22)	Number of clients	Mean severity at first session (0 to 28)	Mean severity one week after final session (0 to 28)
7 or fewer	24	18.3	14.6
8 to 15	58	17.9	10.8
16 to 22	47	18.4	6.9

Completing exposure practices was more strongly related to severity one week after the final session (r = -0.41) than completing thought records was (r = -0.27). Both correlations were statistically significant.

The researchers concluded that clients who did more of their between-session practice finished treatment with milder panic symptoms. They cautioned that each client decided how much practice to do. Clients who were more motivated, or who had more support at home, may have completed more assignments and also improved more for those reasons.

Adapted from: Ilunga-Brask, R., Thibodeaux, M., & Haverkamp, J. (2025). Between-session practice and symptom change in cognitive-behavioral therapy for panic disorder. (Invented for this practice exam, not a published study.)

Your response should be provided in six parts: (A), (B), (C), (D), (E) and (F). Write the response to each part in complete sentences, and use appropriate psychological terminology.

(A)

Identify the research method used in the study.
Question 1, part (A): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (A)
- 1 point Accurately identifies the research method as correlational (a correlational study). Correlational is the expected answer: no variable was manipulated, and the researchers related two measured variables.Earns it: "The research method is a correlational study."; "The researchers used correlational research, measuring how much practice each client completed and how severe the client's symptoms were, then computing the correlation between them."; "A correlational study that followed the same clients from the first session to a week after the last one, which makes it longitudinal as well." (names correlational; the added timing word does not cost the point)Does not: "an experiment" (the researchers did not manipulate how much practice anyone did or randomly assign clients to amounts of practice; each client chose how many assignments to complete, and the researchers measured it); "a survey" (clients did fill out a questionnaire, but that is how one variable was measured; the method is defined by relating two measured variables with a correlation coefficient); "a case study" (129 clients were studied, not one person in depth); "a naturalistic observation" (the researchers did not watch behavior in a natural setting; they used therapists' checklists and questionnaire scores, so this does not earn even though nothing was manipulated); "a longitudinal study" alone (measuring clients at the start and end of treatment describes timing, but it does not identify the research method, which is correlational because no variable was manipulated); "archival research" or "an ex post facto study" alone (neither is one of the course's research methods, and each describes where the data came from or when groups were formed rather than the method; either earns only if the response also identifies the study as correlational)
Model response
The research method is a correlational study. The researchers did not assign clients to do more or less practice; they measured how many assignments each client completed and how severe each client's panic symptoms were, then calculated the correlation between those two variables.
(B)

State the operational definition of homework completion.
Question 1, part (B): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (B)
- 1 point States a measurable definition of homework completion as it was used in the study. The core definition, the number of the 22 assignments marked complete, earns at any reasonable level of detail. The rules for what made a thought record or an exposure practice complete, and how missed sessions were scored, may be added but are not required, and leaving out "of 22" does not cost the point.Earns it: "Homework completion was the number of the 22 between-session assignments that the therapist marked complete on the checklist."; "It was how many of the 22 assignments the client completed, counting a thought record as complete if it was brought in filled out (or, in a week with no panic symptoms, if it held one worried thought about an attack and a more realistic one) and an exposure practice as complete if it was logged with its date, place and length."; "Homework completion was the client's count of completed assignments, out of 22."; "Homework completion was the number of the 22 assignments the therapist marked complete, with thought records and exposure practices counting by the rules the study gives." (a response need not repeat every rule to earn the point); "Homework completion was how many of their assignments each client completed, as marked on the therapist's checklist." (the count is the measurable definition even without the total of 22)Does not: "Homework completion is how hard the client worked on therapy between sessions." (a general description, not the count the researchers used); "Homework completion was the score from 0 to 28 on the panic questionnaire." (that is how panic severity was measured, a different variable); "Clients who did more homework had fewer symptoms." (a result of the study, not a definition of the variable); "Homework completion was whether the client did the homework or not." (a yes or no for the whole course, not the count the researchers used)
Model response
Homework completion was operationally defined as the number of the 22 between-session assignments, the thought records and exposure practices, that the therapist marked complete on a checklist at the start of each session. A thought record counted if the client brought it in filled out, or, in a week with no panic symptoms, if the client had written down one worried thought about having an attack and a more realistic one. An exposure practice counted if the client had logged its date, place and length. Assignments missed because of a skipped session were marked not complete.
(C)

Describe what the correlation coefficient of -0.44 indicates about the relationship between homework completion and panic severity one week after the final session.
Question 1, part (C): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (C)
- 1 point Accurately describes what the coefficient indicates, related to this study: a negative relationship, so clients who completed more assignments tended to have less severe panic symptoms one week after their final session. Describing its strength as moderate is accurate but not required.Earns it: "The correlation of -0.44 means that clients who completed more assignments tended to have lower panic severity scores after treatment."; "It is a moderate negative correlation: as the number of completed assignments goes up, panic severity at the end of treatment tends to go down."; "The negative sign shows that more homework went with milder panic symptoms one week after the last session, and 0.44 shows the relationship is moderate rather than weak or strong."Does not: "The correlation is -0.44." (restates the number without saying what it means for these clients); "Doing more homework caused clients' panic symptoms to drop." (a correlation describes a relationship between measured variables; it cannot show that one caused the other); "It is a positive correlation, so more homework went with more severe symptoms." (the sign is negative: more homework went with less severe symptoms); "It shows a very strong relationship between homework and symptoms." (0.44 is a moderate correlation, well short of a strong one); "It means 44 percent of clients got better." (a correlation coefficient is not a percentage of clients)
Model response
The correlation coefficient of -0.44 indicates a moderate negative relationship between homework completion and panic severity one week after the final session. Clients who completed more of their 22 assignments tended to have lower panic severity scores, meaning milder symptoms, at the end of treatment, while clients who completed fewer tended to have higher scores.
(D)

Identify one ethical guideline described in the study. Describe one way the researchers in the study applied this ethical guideline.
Question 1, part (D): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (D)
- 1 point Identifies an ethical guideline the study describes AND describes how the researchers applied it in this study. Four guidelines each earn with the application the study gives for it: informed consent (the signed consent form saying how records would be used), institutional review (the board approved the study before anyone was invited), confidentiality (names removed and records labeled with code numbers) and the right to withdraw (clients could decline or withdraw at any time with no change to treatment). Protection from harm, applied by leaving every client's treatment unchanged, also earns. An application that belongs to a different guideline does not earn.Earns it: Informed consent: "Each client read and signed a consent form explaining that their practice records and questionnaire scores would be used for research and that taking part added no tasks beyond their usual treatment."; Confidentiality: "Clients' names were removed and each record was labeled with a code number before the records left the clinics."; Institutional review (IRB approval): "An institutional review board reviewed and approved the study before any client was invited."; Protection from harm: "The researchers did not change anyone's treatment, so taking part added no tasks and took away no care."; The right to withdraw: "Clients were told they could decline or withdraw at any time with no change to their treatment."Does not: "The researchers debriefed the clients at the end." (the study does not describe a debriefing); "The researchers should have paid clients for taking part." (names something the researchers did not do, not a guideline the study describes); "The study used informed consent." (identifies a guideline but does not describe how the researchers applied it); "The therapists used the same checklist for every client." (a standardized measure is a feature of the design, not an ethical guideline); "The researchers used deception so clients would act naturally." (no deception is described; clients were told how their records would be used); "Confidentiality: each client signed a consent form." (the application belongs to informed consent, not to confidentiality)
Model response
One ethical guideline described in the study is institutional review. The researchers applied it by having an institutional review board review and approve the study before any client was invited to take part.
(E)

Explain the extent to which the research findings may or may not be generalizable using specific and relevant evidence from the study.
Question 1, part (E): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (E)
- 1 point Makes a claim about generalizability to a population (general or specific) AND supports it with specific evidence about the study's participants. A response that says the study is partly generalizable must show both the way it is and the way it is not.Earns it: "The findings may apply to English-speaking adults in CBT for panic disorder who are not on medication, but not to people who take anxiety medication, because those adults were left out."; "The results may not generalize to teenagers or to adults over 61, since every participant was 19 to 61 years old."; "The findings may apply less to men, because 92 of the 129 clients analyzed were women." (108 of the 152 recruited is accurate too); "The results may not generalize to clients who miss many sessions, since the 23 who attended fewer than 10 sessions were left out of the analysis."; "The study may not generalize beyond Wrenford, because all participants came from two clinics in that one city."Does not: "The study is generalizable to the larger population." (a claim with no evidence about who the participants were); "It is generalizable because 129 people took part." (sample size alone is not evidence about which population the participants represent); "It is not generalizable because correlation does not prove causation." (that is a limit on cause and effect, not on whom the results apply to); "All the participants had panic disorder." (evidence with no claim about the population the results do or do not apply to); "It may not generalize because each client chose how much practice to do." (a true limitation of the design, but it is not about the participants, so it does not earn this point)
Model response
The findings are generalizable only to a limited extent. They may apply to adults similar to the participants: English-speaking adults aged 19 to 61 receiving CBT for panic disorder at outpatient clinics. However, the participants all came from two clinics in one city, most were women (92 of the 129 analyzed), and adults taking anxiety medication were not included. The analysis also left out the 23 clients who attended fewer than 10 sessions. So the results may not hold for people on medication, for teenagers or older adults, or for clients who attend therapy less regularly, who may respond to practice assignments differently.
(F)

Explain how at least one of the research findings supports or refutes the researchers' hypothesis that the more between-session practice assignments a client completes, the milder the client's panic symptoms at the end of treatment.
Question 1, part (F): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (F)
- 1 point Uses a result from the study to say whether the hypothesis is supported or refuted, OR explains whether it is supported or refuted without using a result.Earns it: "Clients who completed 16 to 22 assignments ended with a mean severity of 6.9." (uses a result without explaining what it means for the hypothesis); "The hypothesis is supported because practicing between sessions gives clients more chances to face their fear." (explains without using a result)Does not: "Clients with panic disorder should do their homework." (advice, with no result and no explanation of the hypothesis); "The hypothesis is supported." (no result and no explanation); "Therapy works, so the hypothesis is right." (a general belief, with no result from this study and nothing about the amount of practice)
- 1 point Uses a specific result to explain how it supports or refutes the hypothesis, with every result read accurately. The correlation of -0.44 with severity one week after the final session earns this point on its own when it is read accurately; the drops shown in the table and the near-zero correlation at the first session also support the hypothesis. A response that earns this point also earns the point above.Earns it: "The hypothesis is supported: the correlation between assignments completed and panic severity one week after the final session was -0.44 and statistically significant, so clients who did more practice tended to end treatment with milder symptoms."; "The hypothesis is supported: clients who completed 16 to 22 assignments dropped from 18.4 to 6.9, while those who completed 7 or fewer dropped only from 18.3 to 14.6, so more practice went with a bigger reduction."; "It is supported because the correlation between assignments completed and final severity was -0.44 and significant, while completion was unrelated to severity at the first session (r = -0.04), so the clients who did more practice did not simply start out milder."; "It is supported, though not proven: more practice went with milder symptoms (r = -0.44), but this is correlational and clients chose how much to practice, so motivation could explain both."; "It is supported most for exposure practice, whose completion was more strongly related to final severity (r = -0.41) than thought records were (r = -0.27)."Does not: "The study proves that doing more homework causes panic symptoms to drop." (misreads the results: a correlational study cannot show cause, as the researchers themselves cautioned; earns the first point only); "Clients who did more homework had higher severity scores, so the hypothesis is refuted." (misreads the negative correlation: more homework went with lower scores; earns the first point only); "Thought records were not related to severity, so only exposure helps." (the thought record correlation, -0.27, was also statistically significant; earns the first point only)
Model response
The findings support the hypothesis. The correlation between assignments completed and panic severity one week after the final session was r = -0.44 and statistically significant, so clients who did more practice tended to finish treatment with milder symptoms. The table shows the same pattern: clients who completed 16 to 22 of their assignments went from a mean severity of 18.4 at their first session to 6.9 after treatment, a drop of 11.5 points, while clients who completed 7 or fewer went from 18.3 to 14.6, a drop of only 3.7 points. The three groups started at nearly the same severity, and completion was unrelated to severity at the first session (r = -0.04), so the larger reduction is not explained by the high-completion clients having milder symptoms to begin with. Because the study is correlational and clients chose how much to practice, it supports the hypothesis without showing that the practice itself caused the improvement.

Question 2: Evidence-Based Question 7 points

Using the three sources provided, develop and justify an argument about whether photo-sharing apps should hide the number of likes on posts by users ages 13 to 17.

Source 1

Introduction

On many photo-sharing apps, each post shows how many people have liked it. Researchers wanted to know how teenagers feel about themselves in the half hour after they look at the likes on one of their own posts.

Participants

The participants were 240 teenagers ages 13 to 17 who answered a notice posted at six public libraries in two cities: 128 girls, 106 boys and 6 who described their gender another way. All of them posted photos on a photo-sharing app every week. Before the study, a researcher explained the procedure to each teenager and one parent on a video call. The parent then signed a permission form, and the teenager signed a separate agreement form.

Method

For 14 days, an app on each teenager's phone sent a short set of questions at four random times between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. Each time, the teenager answered two questions. The first asked whether, in the past 30 minutes, the teenager had looked at the likes on one of his or her own posts and, if so, whether the post had more likes than the teenager expected, about as many, or fewer. The second asked how good the teenager felt about himself or herself right then, on a slider from 0 (very bad) to 100 (very good). The researchers compared each teenager's ratings with that same teenager's ratings at other times.

Results and Discussion

The teenagers answered 10,752 of the 13,440 sets of questions sent to them, or 80 percent.

Source 1: How good teenagers felt about themselves, by what they had done in the past 30 minutes
In the past 30 minutes, the teenager had	Number of answers	Mean rating (0 to 100)
Not looked at the likes on his or her own posts	4,890	68
Looked, and the post had more likes than expected	1,940	72
Looked, and the post had about as many likes as expected	2,210	67
Looked, and the post had fewer likes than expected	1,712	55

Within the same teenager, ratings after seeing fewer likes than expected were significantly lower, by 13 points on average, than ratings at times when the teenager had not looked. Ratings after seeing more likes than expected were significantly higher, by 4 points on average. Across the 240 teenagers, the share of answers in which a teenager had looked at his or her likes was not significantly related to that teenager's average rating (r = -0.06).

Adapted from: Castellanos-Pike, A., & Nakashima-Bell, T. (2024). Checking likes: Two weeks of phone check-ins with teenage users of photo-sharing apps. (Invented for this practice exam, not a published study.)

Source 2

Introduction

Researchers tested whether the number of likes a teenager sees on a new post, and whether any number is shown at all, changes how the teenager feels in the minutes after posting.

Participants

The participants were 150 students ages 14 to 16 attending a three-week summer enrichment program at a university. Each student's parent gave written permission, and each student agreed to take part.

Method

The researchers built a practice photo-sharing app for the study. Each student took a photo of something on campus, with no people in it, and posted it to the app, where it appeared in a feed beside posts by other students in the program. Students were told that other students in the program would see the post. In fact, the like counts were set by the researchers.

A computer randomly assigned students to one of three conditions, 50 students in each:

Low count: the student's post showed 3 likes, while the other posts in the feed showed 25 to 40.
High count: the student's post showed 38 likes, while the other posts showed 25 to 40.
Hidden: no post in the feed showed a like count.

Students rated their mood from 1 (very bad) to 10 (very good) just before posting and again 20 minutes later. The app recorded how many times each student opened their own post during those 20 minutes. When the session ended, a researcher told each student that the like counts had been set in advance, explained why, and answered questions.

Results and Discussion

Source 2: Mood and checking by condition (50 students in each)
Condition	Mean mood just before posting (1 to 10)	Mean mood 20 minutes later (1 to 10)	Mean times student opened own post
Low count	7.2	5.6	6.8
High count	7.1	7.6	5.9
Hidden	7.3	7.1	2.4

Twenty minutes after posting, the low count group's mean mood was significantly lower than the hidden group's. The high count and hidden groups did not differ significantly in mood. Students in both conditions that showed counts opened their own posts significantly more often than students in the hidden condition.

Adapted from: Dumitrescu, L., Vandersloot, S., & Okwuosa, F. (2023). Seen counts and unseen counts: Teenagers' mood after posting a photo. (Invented for this practice exam, not a published study.)

Source 3

Introduction

A company that runs a photo-sharing app tested what happens when the same teenage users have like counts shown for a while and then hidden, or hidden and then shown.

Participants

The company invited 12,000 of its users ages 13 to 17 to take part. Taking part required a parent's permission, given in the app, and the user's own agreement. Of the users invited, 3,600 took part, or 30 percent.

Method

Each user had like counts shown for 4 weeks and hidden for 4 weeks. A computer randomly chose which half of the users had counts hidden first. The app recorded, for every user, the minutes a day spent in the app, the number of photos posted a week, and the percentage of new posts that the user deleted within an hour of posting them. When the 8 weeks ended, every user chose whether to have counts shown or hidden from then on.

Results and Discussion

Source 3: App use by the same 3,600 users with like counts shown and hidden
Measure	Like counts shown (4 weeks)	Like counts hidden (4 weeks)
Minutes a day in the app	51	50
Photos posted a week	2.2	2.7
Percentage of new posts deleted within an hour	9	4

The differences in photos posted and in posts deleted were statistically significant; the difference in minutes a day was not. The pattern was the same whichever order a user had. When the 8 weeks ended, 41 percent of the users chose to have counts shown and 59 percent chose to have them hidden.

Adapted from: Quarles-Adeyemi, C., & Laurendeau, P. (2025). Shown, then hidden: Eight weeks of like counts for teenage users of one photo-sharing app. (Invented for this practice exam, not a published study.)

(A)

Propose a specific and defensible claim based in psychological science that responds to the question.
Question 2, part (A): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (A)
- 1 point Proposes a claim that responds to the question: a position on hiding like counts for users ages 13 to 17, a specific effect of hiding them, or a recommendation about how apps should handle them. A claim for hiding counts, against hiding them, or a qualified claim earns the point equally. The point can be earned even if parts (B) and (C) do not support the claim.Earns it: "Photo-sharing apps should hide the number of likes on posts by users ages 13 to 17."; "Apps should hide like counts for teenage users by default, but let a teen turn them back on."; "Apps should not hide like counts for teenagers, because hiding them does not change how much teens use the apps."; "Hiding like counts would lead teenagers to post more freely and delete fewer of their posts."; "Apps should leave like counts on for teenagers and let each user decide whether to hide them."Does not: "Whether to hide likes is a complicated question for apps." (describes the question without taking a position); "Likes are bad." (an oversimplified conclusion that does not say what apps should do); "Teenagers should spend less time on their phones." (does not respond to the question about hiding like counts); "Teenagers feel worse after seeing fewer likes than they expected (Source 1)." (repeats evidence from a source instead of proposing a claim)
Model response
Photo-sharing apps should hide the number of likes on posts by users ages 13 to 17.
(B)(i)

Support your claim using at least one piece of specific and relevant evidence from one of the sources.
Question 2, part (B)(i): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (B)(i)
- 1 point Uses one piece of correctly cited, specific, accurate and relevant evidence from one of the sources to support the claim, whichever side the claim takes: for hiding counts, against hiding them, or a qualified position such as hiding them by default with an opt-in. Any citation style counts, and slight errors in specific numbers still earn the point when the direction of the difference or relationship is right.Earns it: "Teenagers rated how good they felt about themselves a mean of 55 out of 100 in the half hour after seeing fewer likes than they expected, compared with 68 when they had not looked at their likes (Source 1)."; "Twenty minutes after posting, students whose post showed only 3 likes rated their mood 5.6, significantly lower than the 7.1 of students who saw no counts (Source 2)."; "Source 2 found that students who saw like counts opened their own posts 6.8 and 5.9 times in 20 minutes, compared with 2.4 times when counts were hidden."; "With counts hidden, the same users posted 2.7 photos a week instead of 2.2 and deleted 4 percent of their new posts within an hour instead of 9 percent (Source 3)."; For a claim against hiding counts: "Minutes a day in the app hardly changed, 51 with counts shown and 50 with them hidden, and the difference was not significant (Source 3)."; For a claim against hiding counts, or for letting teenagers choose: "After trying both, 41 percent of the users in Source 3 chose to keep like counts shown."; For a claim against hiding counts: "Teenagers felt better about themselves after seeing more likes than expected, a mean of 72, than when they had not looked, 68 (Source 1)."; For a claim against hiding counts: "In Source 2, students whose post showed 38 likes rose in mood from 7.1 to 7.6, while the hidden group went from 7.3 to 7.1."; For a qualified claim, such as hiding counts by default with an opt-in: "When the 8 weeks ended, 59 percent of the users chose to have counts hidden and 41 percent chose to have them shown (Source 3)."; For a claim against hiding counts: "Across the 240 teenagers, how often a teenager looked at his or her likes was not significantly related to that teenager's average rating, r = -0.06 (Source 1)."Does not: "Research shows likes hurt teenagers' feelings about themselves." (no citation, and not specific); "Hiding likes helps teens (Source 2)." (cited, but names no specific result); "Source 1 found that teenagers who look at their likes more often feel worse about themselves overall." (inaccurate: that relationship, r = -0.06, was not significant; the significant differences were within each teenager, after seeing fewer or more likes than expected); "Users in Source 3 spent far less time in the app once counts were hidden." (inaccurate: minutes a day did not change significantly)
Model response
In Source 2, students whose new post showed only 3 likes, while the other posts around it showed 25 to 40, dropped from a mean mood of 7.2 before posting to 5.6 twenty minutes later, which was significantly lower than the 7.1 of students who saw no like counts at all (Source 2).
(B)(ii)

Explain how the evidence from part (B)(i) supports your claim using a psychological perspective, theory, concept or research finding learned in AP Psychology.
Question 2, part (B)(ii): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (B)(ii)
- 1 point Correctly interprets the evidence and explains how it supports the claim, whichever side the claim takes, with or without a psychological concept. A qualified claim and a claim against hiding counts earn on the same terms as a claim for hiding them. A response may also weigh a limit of a source, such as Source 3 being run by the company that owns the app or its 30 percent participation, when it uses that limit to explain how the evidence bears on its claim. This point can be earned even if part (B)(i) did not earn its point.Earns it: "This supports hiding counts because a teen who sees that their post got far fewer likes than everyone else's feels worse about themselves right after posting, and without a count there is nothing to make them feel that way."; "This supports my claim because time in the app hardly changed when counts were hidden, so hiding them would not cost the app its teenage users while it takes away a reason to delete posts."; "Source 2's students were 14 to 16 and saw one post for 20 minutes, so the result may fit 13- and 17-year-olds less well; still, a low count lowered mood, which supports hiding counts at least for teenagers like these." (a response may point out a limit of a source, such as Source 2's ages or its single session, while explaining how the evidence supports the claim; noting the limit never costs the point); For a qualified claim: "This supports hiding counts by default with an opt-in, because most users who tried both chose hidden, but a large minority chose shown, so one setting forced on everyone would go against what many teenagers wanted."; For a claim against hiding counts: "This supports keeping counts, because a teen who looks at likes often does not feel worse overall; the lower ratings in Source 1 were measured only in the half hour after looking, and seeing more likes than expected raised ratings."; A limit used to weigh the evidence: "Source 3 was run by the company that owns the app, and only 30 percent of the users invited took part, so the 59 percent who chose hidden may not speak for all teenage users; that is why counts should be hidden by default but left to each teen to change." (a limit of a source earns the explanation point when the response uses it to say how the evidence bears on its own claim; a limit stated with no tie to the claim does not)Does not: "Students whose post showed 3 likes rated their mood 5.6 (Source 2)." with nothing after it (evidence repeated without saying how it supports the claim); "Apps should hide likes because social media is bad for teenagers." (an opinion with no reference to the sources); "This shows that seeing fewer likes causes teenagers to feel worse about themselves (Source 1)." (misreads a correlational study as proof of cause); "Source 3 was run by the app company, so it is biased." (a limit with no explanation of how the evidence bears on the claim)
- 1 point Applies a psychological perspective, theory, concept or research finding from AP Psychology correctly to explain how the evidence supports the claim. Terms the sources themselves use do not count as the psychological concept: like, like count, post, photo-sharing app, mood, feel or feeling, expect or expected, delete, choose or choice, teenagers, adolescents, correlation, mean, percentage, statistically significant, condition and random assignment. Self-esteem does not count either, since it only renames what Source 1 measured, how good a teenager felt about himself or herself. Social comparison, upward comparison and relative deprivation are eligible, since the sources show likes on other posts but do not name these concepts; a response that only says teenagers compare likes, without the concept, does not earn the application point. A response that earns this point also earns the point above.Earns it: Upward social comparison: judging yourself against people who are doing better lowers how you feel about yourself, and a visible count gives teenagers a number to compare against others who got more, as when a post with 3 likes sat among posts with 25 to 40 (Source 2).; Relative deprivation: a teenager judges a post with 3 likes as a failure only because the posts around it got 25 to 40, so removing the counts removes the comparison that creates the sense of deprivation.; Operant conditioning and positive reinforcement on a partial schedule: checking for likes pays off only when new likes have arrived since the last check, which is a variable-interval schedule, and partial reinforcement keeps checking frequent and hard to stop, so hiding counts removes the reinforcer and checking drops. A response that names variable-ratio still earns this point if its reasoning, that unpredictable reinforcement keeps checking frequent, is otherwise correct.; Extinction: teenagers who already check for likes are reinforced by new counts; if an app hid them, checking would stop being reinforced and should weaken over time. Source 2's hidden group, which opened its posts far less often, shows that the counts are what keep the checking going.; Normative social influence: teenagers post and judge posts to win the approval of peers, and a public count makes that approval, or the lack of it, visible to everyone.; The imaginary audience: adolescents overestimate how closely others are watching and judging them, and a public count feeds that belief, which fits users deleting fewer new posts once counts were hidden (Source 3).; Lewin's approach-avoidance conflict: posting is attractive but risks a low count, and hiding counts removes much of the avoidance side, so users posted more and deleted less (Source 3).; Self-determination theory and intrinsic motivation: likes are an extrinsic reward, and without them teenagers can post for the enjoyment of sharing. For a claim that teenagers should choose, the theory's need for autonomy fits the 41 percent who chose to keep counts (Source 3).; For a claim against hiding counts, positive reinforcement: a high count or more likes than expected raised mood and how good teenagers felt about themselves (Sources 1 and 2), so counts reward teenagers as well as hurt them.; For a claim that the evidence does not justify hiding counts, the third variable or directionality problem in Source 1: it is correlational, and teenagers chose when to look, so something else, such as a bad day, may lead both to looking and to feeling worse. This earns only for a claim phrased that way; a claim that apps should keep counts needs supporting evidence, such as the reinforcement line above.; Punishment: when counts are shown, a post that draws few likes is followed by an unpleasant consequence, which makes posting less likely, so with counts shown users posted fewer photos; removing the counts removes the punisher, and posting rose (Source 3). Deleting a post to get away from a low count is escape, and a response that names this negative reinforcement also earns.; Sampling bias or a self-selected (volunteer) sample, for a qualified claim or a claim against hiding: only 30 percent of the invited users took part in Source 3, and volunteers may differ from teenagers who did not, so its results may not represent all teenage users. This earns only when the response uses it to explain why the evidence supports its own claim, such as leaving the choice to each teenager.Does not: "Teens feel bad when they get fewer likes than they expected, so likes should be hidden." (uses words from the sources, not an AP Psychology concept; earns the first point only); "Hiding counts is negative reinforcement, because it punishes teens for posting." (misapplies the concept: negative reinforcement strengthens a behavior by removing something unpleasant, and it is not punishment); "Source 2 shows extinction because the hidden group stopped checking." (misreads the design: the hidden group never had counts to lose, so it shows less checking without reinforcement, not a reinforced behavior weakening; earns neither point unless the response explains the evidence correctly elsewhere); "This shows the bystander effect, because many people saw the post and nobody liked it." (misapplies the concept: the bystander effect is about whether people help someone in need when others are present); "Hiding counts is punishment, because the app takes the likes away from teens." (misapplies the concept: punishment weakens the behavior it follows, and hiding counts follows no behavior of the teen's)
Model response
This evidence supports hiding like counts because it shows what upward social comparison does to teenagers. In upward social comparison, people judge themselves against others who seem to be doing better, and it usually leaves them feeling worse about themselves. A visible count turns every post into a scoreboard: the students whose photo showed 3 likes next to posts with 25 to 40 had an obvious group to compare against, and their mood fell. When no counts were shown, there was no number to compare, and mood stayed about where it started. Hiding counts for teens removes the comparison, so it removes the drop in mood that follows it.
(C)(i)

Support your claim using an additional piece of specific and relevant evidence from a different source than the one that was used in part (B)(i).
Question 2, part (C)(i): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (C)(i)
- 1 point Uses a different piece of correctly cited, specific, accurate and relevant evidence from a different source than the one used in part (B)(i), whichever side the claim takes: for hiding counts, against hiding them, or a qualified position such as hiding them by default with an opt-in. Evidence from the same source as part (B)(i) does not earn this point.Earns it: "Teenagers rated how good they felt about themselves a mean of 55 out of 100 in the half hour after seeing fewer likes than they expected, compared with 68 when they had not looked at their likes (Source 1)."; "With counts hidden, the same users posted 2.7 photos a week instead of 2.2 and deleted 4 percent of their new posts within an hour instead of 9 percent (Source 3)."; For a claim against hiding counts: "Minutes a day in the app hardly changed, 51 with counts shown and 50 with them hidden, and the difference was not significant (Source 3)."; For a claim against hiding counts, or for letting teenagers choose: "After trying both, 41 percent of the users in Source 3 chose to keep like counts shown."; For a claim against hiding counts: "Teenagers felt better about themselves after seeing more likes than expected, a mean of 72, than when they had not looked, 68 (Source 1)."; For a qualified claim, such as hiding counts by default with an opt-in: "When the 8 weeks ended, 59 percent of the users chose to have counts hidden and 41 percent chose to have them shown (Source 3)."; For a claim against hiding counts: "Across the 240 teenagers, how often a teenager looked at his or her likes was not significantly related to that teenager's average rating, r = -0.06 (Source 1)."Does not: "Teens who saw no count opened their posts only 2.4 times (Source 2)." (when part (B)(i) used Source 2, this evidence is from the same source); "Research shows likes hurt teenagers' feelings about themselves." (no citation, and not specific); "Hiding likes helps teens (Source 2)." (cited, but names no specific result); "Source 1 found that teenagers who look at their likes more often feel worse about themselves overall." (inaccurate: that relationship, r = -0.06, was not significant; the significant differences were within each teenager, after seeing fewer or more likes than expected); "Users in Source 3 spent far less time in the app once counts were hidden." (inaccurate: minutes a day did not change significantly)
Model response
When the app hid like counts, the same users posted more photos, 2.7 a week instead of 2.2, and deleted fewer of their new posts within an hour, 4 percent instead of 9 percent; both differences were statistically significant (Source 3).
(C)(ii)

Explain how the evidence from part (C)(i) supports your claim using a different psychological perspective, theory, concept or research finding learned in AP Psychology than the one that was used in part (B)(ii).
Question 2, part (C)(ii): your response. It stays in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere.
Score part (C)(ii)
- 1 point Correctly interprets the evidence and explains how it supports the claim, whichever side the claim takes, with or without a psychological concept. A qualified claim and a claim against hiding counts earn on the same terms as a claim for hiding them. A response may also weigh a limit of a source, such as Source 3 being run by the company that owns the app or its 30 percent participation, when it uses that limit to explain how the evidence bears on its claim. This point can be earned even if part (C)(i) did not earn its point, and even if the evidence comes from the same source as part (B), as long as it is a different piece of evidence.Earns it: "This supports hiding counts because users posted more photos and deleted fewer once counts were hidden, which shows the counts were holding some of them back from sharing."; "This supports my claim because the students who saw no count opened their posts far less, so they spent less of their time anxiously checking."; "Source 2's students were 14 to 16 and saw one post for 20 minutes, so the result may fit 13- and 17-year-olds less well; still, a low count lowered mood, which supports hiding counts at least for teenagers like these." (a response may point out a limit of a source, such as Source 2's ages or its single session, while explaining how the evidence supports the claim; noting the limit never costs the point); For a qualified claim: "This supports hiding counts by default with an opt-in, because most users who tried both chose hidden, but a large minority chose shown, so one setting forced on everyone would go against what many teenagers wanted."; For a claim against hiding counts: "This supports keeping counts, because a teen who looks at likes often does not feel worse overall; the lower ratings in Source 1 were measured only in the half hour after looking, and seeing more likes than expected raised ratings."; A limit used to weigh the evidence: "Source 3 was run by the company that owns the app, and only 30 percent of the users invited took part, so the 59 percent who chose hidden may not speak for all teenage users; that is why counts should be hidden by default but left to each teen to change." (a limit of a source earns the explanation point when the response uses it to say how the evidence bears on its own claim; a limit stated with no tie to the claim does not)Does not: "With counts hidden, users posted 2.7 photos a week (Source 3)." with nothing after it (evidence repeated without saying how it supports the claim); "Hiding likes is just a good idea for everyone." (an opinion with no reference to the sources); "This shows teens spent much less time on the app after counts were hidden (Source 3)." (misreads the source: minutes a day did not change significantly); "Source 3 was run by the app company, so it is biased." (a limit with no explanation of how the evidence bears on the claim)
- 1 point Applies a different psychological perspective, theory, concept or research finding from AP Psychology correctly to explain how the evidence supports the claim, one that is not the concept used in part (B)(ii). Terms the sources themselves use do not count as the psychological concept: like, like count, post, photo-sharing app, mood, feel or feeling, expect or expected, delete, choose or choice, teenagers, adolescents, correlation, mean, percentage, statistically significant, condition and random assignment. Self-esteem does not count either, since it only renames what Source 1 measured, how good a teenager felt about himself or herself. Social comparison, upward comparison and relative deprivation are eligible, since the sources show likes on other posts but do not name these concepts; a response that only says teenagers compare likes, without the concept, does not earn the application point. A response that earns this point also earns the point above.Earns it: Upward social comparison: judging yourself against people who are doing better lowers how you feel about yourself, and a visible count gives teenagers a number to compare against others who got more, as when a post with 3 likes sat among posts with 25 to 40 (Source 2).; Relative deprivation: a teenager judges a post with 3 likes as a failure only because the posts around it got 25 to 40, so removing the counts removes the comparison that creates the sense of deprivation.; Operant conditioning and positive reinforcement on a partial schedule: checking for likes pays off only when new likes have arrived since the last check, which is a variable-interval schedule, and partial reinforcement keeps checking frequent and hard to stop, so hiding counts removes the reinforcer and checking drops. A response that names variable-ratio still earns this point if its reasoning, that unpredictable reinforcement keeps checking frequent, is otherwise correct.; Extinction: teenagers who already check for likes are reinforced by new counts; if an app hid them, checking would stop being reinforced and should weaken over time. Source 2's hidden group, which opened its posts far less often, shows that the counts are what keep the checking going.; Normative social influence: teenagers post and judge posts to win the approval of peers, and a public count makes that approval, or the lack of it, visible to everyone.; The imaginary audience: adolescents overestimate how closely others are watching and judging them, and a public count feeds that belief, which fits users deleting fewer new posts once counts were hidden (Source 3).; Lewin's approach-avoidance conflict: posting is attractive but risks a low count, and hiding counts removes much of the avoidance side, so users posted more and deleted less (Source 3).; Self-determination theory and intrinsic motivation: likes are an extrinsic reward, and without them teenagers can post for the enjoyment of sharing. For a claim that teenagers should choose, the theory's need for autonomy fits the 41 percent who chose to keep counts (Source 3).; For a claim against hiding counts, positive reinforcement: a high count or more likes than expected raised mood and how good teenagers felt about themselves (Sources 1 and 2), so counts reward teenagers as well as hurt them.; For a claim that the evidence does not justify hiding counts, the third variable or directionality problem in Source 1: it is correlational, and teenagers chose when to look, so something else, such as a bad day, may lead both to looking and to feeling worse. This earns only for a claim phrased that way; a claim that apps should keep counts needs supporting evidence, such as the reinforcement line above.; Punishment: when counts are shown, a post that draws few likes is followed by an unpleasant consequence, which makes posting less likely, so with counts shown users posted fewer photos; removing the counts removes the punisher, and posting rose (Source 3). Deleting a post to get away from a low count is escape, and a response that names this negative reinforcement also earns.; Sampling bias or a self-selected (volunteer) sample, for a qualified claim or a claim against hiding: only 30 percent of the invited users took part in Source 3, and volunteers may differ from teenagers who did not, so its results may not represent all teenage users. This earns only when the response uses it to explain why the evidence supports its own claim, such as leaving the choice to each teenager.Does not: "This shows upward social comparison again, because teens compare their likes." (repeats the concept from part (B)(ii), so it earns at most the explanation point); "Teens feel bad when they get fewer likes than they expected, so likes should be hidden." (uses words from the sources, not an AP Psychology concept; earns the first point only); "Hiding counts is negative reinforcement, because it punishes teens for posting." (misapplies the concept: negative reinforcement strengthens a behavior by removing something unpleasant, and it is not punishment); "Source 2 shows extinction because the hidden group stopped checking." (misreads the design: the hidden group never had counts to lose, so it shows less checking without reinforcement, not a reinforced behavior weakening; earns neither point unless the response explains the evidence correctly elsewhere); "This shows the bystander effect, because many people saw the post and nobody liked it." (misapplies the concept: the bystander effect is about whether people help someone in need when others are present); "Hiding counts is punishment, because the app takes the likes away from teens." (misapplies the concept: punishment weakens the behavior it follows, and hiding counts follows no behavior of the teen's)
Model response
This evidence supports hiding like counts because it shows that the counts were creating an approach-avoidance conflict for teenagers. In Lewin's theory, an approach-avoidance conflict happens when one choice has both an attractive and an unattractive side. Posting a photo is attractive because a teenager gets to share something, but with counts showing, it also risks a low number that everyone can see, and that risk pushes teenagers away from posting and toward taking posts down. When the same users had counts hidden, they posted more photos and deleted fewer of them while spending about the same time in the app. So hiding counts lets teenagers use the app for what they enjoy about it without the fear that held them back.

Full practice exams

Practice Exam 1

Section I: Multiple Choice

Section II: Free Response

Question 1: Article Analysis Question 7 points

Source

Question 2: Evidence-Based Question 7 points

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Practice Exam 2

Section I: Multiple Choice

Section II: Free Response

Question 1: Article Analysis Question 7 points

Source

Question 2: Evidence-Based Question 7 points

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