AP Psychology Unit 7 AP Topic/ MC Questions / AP Classroom

Iconic memory is to echoic memory as A. flashbulb memory is to implicit memory B. short-term memory is to long-term memory C. explicit memory is to implicit memory D. visual stimulation is to auditory stimulation E. automatic processing is to effortful processing

D. visual stimulation is to auditory stimulation

According to Benjamin Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis, which of the following is true?

Different languages predispose those individuals who speak them to think about the world in different ways.

Which of the following best describes the primacy effect? (A) When people have better recall of things that occur at the beginning of a sequence (B) When people have better recall of things that occur at the end of a sequence (C) When people who know very little about a subject tend to be overly confident about how much they know about that subject, while people who know a great deal about the subject tend to downplay their knowledge about that subject (D) When people tend to rely too heavily on the first piece of information they get when making decisions

(A) When people have better recall of things that occur at the beginning of a sequence

Which of the following is most likely to lead to semantic encoding of a list of words? (a) Thinking about how the words relate to your own life (b) Practicing the words for a single extended period (c) Breaking up the practice into several relatively short sessions (d) Noticing where in a sentence the words appear (e) Focusing on the number of vowels and consonants in the words

(a) Thinking about how the words relate to your own life

When someone provides his phone number to another person, he usually pauses after the area code and again after the next three numbers. This pattern underscores the importance of (a) chunking. (b) the serial position effect. (c) semantic encoding. (d) auditory encoding. (e) automatic processing.

(a) chunking.

Noam Chomsky believes that all we need to acquire language is (a) exposure to language in early childhood. (b) instruction in grammar. (c) reinforcement for babbling and other early verbal behaviors. (d) imitation and drill. (e) linguistic determinism.

(a) exposure to language in early childhood.

Hermann Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve indicates that (a) most forgetting occurs early on and then levels off. (b) we forget more rapidly as additional time passes. (c) forgetting is relatively constant over time. (d) forgetting is related to many factors, but time is not one of them. (e) we are more likely to forget items in the middle of a list than at the beginning or the end.

(a) most forgetting occurs early on and then levels off.

Which of the following illustrates a heuristic? (a) Calculating the area of a rectangle by multiplying the length times the width. (b) Recalling published reports of corporate fraud to estimate how much fraud occurs in American business. (c) Looking in each room of your home to find your sleeping cat. (d) Following a new recipe to bake a cake for your friend. (e) Trying every key on your mom's key ring until you find the one that unlocks the seldom-used storeroom in the basement.

(b) Recalling published reports of corporate fraud to estimate how much fraud occurs in American business.

Which of the following is an example of proactive interference? (a) You can't remember your locker combination from sixth grade because your current locker combination interferes (b) You can't recall your new cell phone number because your old number interferes (c) You can't recall what you studied in first period because what you studied in fourth period interferes (d) You can't recall what you studied on Monday because what you learned on Tuesday interferes

(b) You can't recall your new cell phone number because your old number interferes

Benjamin Lee Whorf's linguistic determinism hypothesis relates to the (a) influence thinking has on language. (b) influence language has on thinking. (c) role of the language acquisition device. (d) importance of critical periods in language development. (e) development of language in nonhuman animals.

(b) influence language has on thinking.

In English, we know to put adjectives before nouns because of (a) semantics. (b) syntax. (c) statistical learning. (d) algorithms. (e) practice during the babbling stage.

(b) syntax.

Your memory of which of the following is an example of implicit memory? (a) What you had for breakfast yesterday (b) The need to spend some time reviewing tomorrow for an upcoming psychology quiz (c) Which way to turn the car key to start the ignition (d) That George Washington was the first president (e) How exciting it was to get the best birthday present ever

(c) Which way to turn the car key to start the ignition

The "magical number seven, plus or minus two" refers to the (a) ideal number of times to rehearse information in the first encoding session. (b) number of seconds information stays in short-term memory without rehearsal. (c) capacity of short-term memory. (d) number of seconds information stays in echoic storage. (e) number of years most long-term memories last.

(c) capacity of short-term memory.

"Chair," "freedom," and "ball" are all (a) phonemes. (b) heuristics. (c) concepts. (d) telegraphic utterances. (e) prototypes.

(c) concepts.

Hermann Ebbinghaus is considered a pioneer in memory research because he established the importance of (a) semantic encoding. (b) mnemonic devices. (c) rehearsal. (d) iconic storage. (e) long-term potentiation.

(c) rehearsal.

According to Robert Sternberg, which of the following is not a component of creativity? (a) A venturesome personality (b) Imaginative thinking skills (c) A creative environment (d) A position of ignorance (e) Intrinsic motivation

(d) A position of ignorance

Caitlin, a fifth grader, is asked to remember the name of her second grade teacher. What measure of retention will Caitlin use to answer this question? (a) Storage (b) Recognition (c) Relearning (d) Recall (e) Encoding

(d) Recall

Which of the following is an example of the primacy effect? (a) Remembering the most important homework assignment you have to complete (b) Remembering the skills you learned early in life, such as walking (c) Remembering the last thing your English teacher said in class yesterday, but nothing from earlier in the class period (d) Remembering the names of the first two co-workers you met on the first day of your new job

(d) Remembering the names of the first two co-workers you met on the first day of your new job

After Doug witnessed two cars involved in a car accident, a police officer asked Doug how fast the cars were going when the accident happened. According to research by Elizabeth Loftus, which of the following questions could the officer ask that would make Doug most susceptible to the misinformation effect? (A) How fast were the cars going when the accident occurred? (B) How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other? (C) What can you tell me about what you saw? (D) Were there other people around who witnessed the accident?

(B) How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?

Which of the following is an example of source amnesia? (a) Iva can't remember the details of a horrifying event because she has repressed them. (b) Mary has entirely forgotten about an incident in grade school until her friend reminds her of the event. (c) Michael can't remember this year's locker combination because he confuses it with last year's combination. (d) Stephen misremembers a dream as something that really happened. (e) Anna, who is trying to lose weight, is unable to remember several of the between-meal snacks she had yesterday.

(d) Stephen misremembers a dream as something that really happened.

People are more concerned about a medical procedure when told it has a 10 percent death rate than they are when told it has a 90 percent survival rate. This is because of (a) belief perseverance. (b) insight. (c) intuition. (d) framing. (e) confirmation bias.

(d) framing.

Which of the following illustrates the serial position effect? (a) The only name Kensie remembers from the people she met at the party is Spencer, because she thought he was particularly good looking. (b) Kimia has trouble remembering information from the book's first unit when she reviews for semester finals. (c) It's easy for Brittney to remember that carbon's atomic number is 6 because her birthday is on December 6. (d) Kyle was not able to remember the names of all of his new co-workers after one week on the job, but he could after two weeks. (e) Alp is unable to remember the middle of a list of vocabulary words as well as he remembers the first or last words on the list.

(e) Alp is unable to remember the middle of a list of vocabulary words as well as he remembers the first or last words on the list.

Which of the following statements concerning memory is true? (a) Hypnosis, when used as a component of therapy, usually improves the accuracy of memory. (b) One aspect of memory that is usually accurate is the source of the remembered information. (c) Children's memories of abuse are always accurate. (d) Memories we are more certain of are more likely to be accurate. (e) Memories are often a blend of correct and incorrect information.

(e) Memories are often a blend of correct and incorrect information.

Five-year-old Tahani is entering a school where English is the only language spoken, but in her home, her family uses a combination of both English and her family's native language. When she starts school, she takes a test measuring her English language development. Her score is well below that of the other children in her class, most of whom live in homes where only one language is spoken. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for Tahani's test scores?

Because Tahani speaks more than one language, her proficiency in each language may come later than for her monolingual peers.

A man sustains a head injury. After the injury, he is able to tie his shoes, but he does not recall where he lives. Which aspect of the man's memory is intact and which aspect is dysfunctional, respectively?

Procedural and semantic

Amehd, a fifth grader, is passing a note to his friend in class while his teacher is teaching a new type of math problem. When he is later tested on the material, he is unable to recall how to solve a similar problem. Which of the following theories best explains Amehd's difficulty in recalling how to do this type of problem?

The multi-store model, because it focuses on encoding and retrieving information

Which of the following statements is true of insight problem solving?

It requires an incubation period in which the problem solver can start fresh on the problem.

Which of the following is an example of metacognition?

Knowing the effectiveness of different strategies for learning statistical formulas

Raj, a four-year-old child, learned to open the door to a classroom by pulling on the handle. Now whenever he approaches any door he pulls on the handle and is confused when that does not work. This is best explained by Raj's having developed which of the following for door opening?

a mental set

When trying to solve a problem, Bret uses a logical, step-by-step formula called

an algorithm

Which process transfers information from sensory memory to short-term memory?

attention

Matthew's parents are physicists, and so are the parents of several of his best friends. Therefore, Matthew believes that many people are employed as physicists. Matthew's reasoning is based on

availability heuristic

A teenager believes very strongly that a particular basketball player should not play on his favorite team. Over the course of the season, the teenager focuses on every mistake, turnover, and missed shot the player makes. However, the teen does not notice how well the player passes, helps other teammates, and rebounds. This teenager's behavior illustrates which of the following? a. A mnemonic b. Confirmation bias c. The availability heuristic d. An algorithmic error e. Metacognition

b. Confirmation bias

Hillary glances at a graph and then turns her head away less than a second later. When she tries to immediately remember what she saw, which of the following types of memory does Hillary use? a. Echoic b. Episodic c. Procedural d. Iconic

d. Iconic

Creativity is most closely associated with which of the following?

divergent thinking

The Vietnamese language has the sound that goes with the letters NG at the beginning of words, including names. Americans have difficulty hearing and speaking that sound. That sound is a kind of a. Pheromone b. semantic unit c. Syntactic unit d. Morpheme e. Phoneme

e. Phoneme

Barclay is excited about all they will learn in AP Psychology when school starts next week. According to the multi-store model of memory, the first stage in memory processing involves which of the following?

encoding

Denny does not have wrapping paper to use to wrap a birthday present, and so he decides to use colorful newspaper comics instead. Denny's solution demonstrates that he has overcome

functional fixedness

A 40-year-old man and his 7-year-old son move to a country where they have to learn a new language. Compared with his son, the 40-year-old man will

have more difficulty learning to produce phonemes that do not exist in his native language

When confronted with the sequence "__N __" at the end of a word in a crossword puzzle, Tony inserts the letters "I" and "G" in the two blanks because that procedure has often led to the correct answer in previous puzzles. This example illustrates the use of

heuristic

A researcher observed chimpanzees trying to solve a problem. The chimpanzee suddenly solved the problem. The researcher viewed this behavior as evidence of which of the following?

insight

The difficulty many people have recalling the details of common objects such as pennies can best be explained by

lack of encoding

When Sophie reads her history assignments, she goes over them very carefully and tries to memorize each fact. Emma, on the other hand, studies by trying to relate the new information to things she has experienced, been told about by others, or seen in movies and on television. Emma's performance on history tests will probably be better than Sophie's due to differences in which of the following?

levels of processing

A basic assumption underlying short-term memory is that it is

limited in capacity

Janie is successful with word games that require her to create words out of a series of letters. Which of the following combinations most likely contributes to her success?

linguistic intelligence and heuristics

In legal cases, research on the misinformation effect is most often used to cast doubt on which of the following?

memory of eyewitnesses

A few people witness an assault. Before the police arrive, one witness confidently tells the others that the assailant was wearing a green shirt, though in fact the shirt was blue. Later, when the police interview each witness individually, almost all of them state that they remember a green shirt. The memory error is referred to as

misinformation effect

A word or part of a word that is in itself meaningful, but that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful units, is called a

morpheme

When the word "walk" is changed to "walked," the suffix "ed" is an example of a

morpheme

Xi Bai was injured in a car accident and sustained damage to the cerebellum. Which of the following would Xi Bai anticipate to be disrupted by this injury?

motor learning

To score high on a test of creativity, a person's answers should be

original and valuable

In the morning, Jorge watched a cartoon about a sarcastic rabbit. Later, in his psychology class, he viewed the image above and readily identified it as a rabbit instead of a duck. Which of the following best explains this phenomenon?

priming

Which of the following increases the chance that an individual will remember a telephone number that has been called several times within a short period?

rehearsal

The difference between divided attention and selective attention is that divided attention

requires more automatic processing than selective attention does

When Lois looks at her wedding pictures, she has vivid memories of the early years of her marriage. The pictures serve as

retrieval cues

Genie was a girl who endured abusive and neglectful conditions and was deprived of language exposure until she was rescued at age 13. Despite remediation, Genie was unable to learn to speak fluently. Historically, this case study was used to demonstrate the effects of

sensitive periods

A prototype is best defined as

the hypothetical "most typical" instance of a category

If mice lack an enzyme essential to the process of long-term potentiation, which of the following will be the most likely consequence?

they will be unable to learn a maze

Metacognition refers to

thinking about thinking

Which of the following scenarios best demonstrates the role of context effects in memory? (A) Jonah tutored his classmate on a difficult concept, and now he understands the concept better than he did before tutoring his classmate. (B) Amy studied for a vocabulary test in the same classroom and at the same time of day as the normal class, and she performed better on the test than students who studied in different classrooms under different conditions. (C) Mateo studied for an anatomy exam while taking pain medication, which he did not take before the exam. He forgot many of the concepts that he learned when he was studying. (D) Dina could not remember the name of her second-grade teacher, but after she thought about the names of her classmates, the teacher's name suddenly came to her.

(B) Amy studied for a vocabulary test in the same classroom and at the same time of day as the normal class, and she performed better on the test than students who studied in different classrooms under different conditions.

12. Dr. Rudolph's class has a big test coming up next week. Which of the following students is using a studying strategy that is most likely to lead to memory consolidation? (A) Marcus does not study until the night before the test, when he studies for eight hours straight. (B) Elizabeth studies for a half hour before she goes to bed each night the week before the exam. (C) Sharon does not study for the test, but she pays close attention, asks lots of questions, and takes good notes during class. (D) Mario studies by repeating his class notes to himself multiple times.

(B) Elizabeth studies for a half hour before she goes to bed each night the week before the exam.

A popular Model A skateboard has been sold for 10 years. The company has created a new skateboard, Model B. They want to see if people who used Model A can learn to ride Model B faster than those who have never skated before. The company picks 50 people for the study and splits them into two groups. Group 1 takes 3 weeks of lessons using Model A. Group 2 does not take any lessons. After the 3 weeks, both groups get lessons on Model B. The researchers check how long it takes each person to learn to ride Model B. They find that Group 1 takes much longer to learn than Group 2. 10. What cognitive process helps explain the results found by the Cory's Skateboards team? (A) Retroactive interference (B) Proactive interference (C) Encoding failure (D) Forgetting curve

(B) Proactive interference

Professor DuVall teaches two classes of psychology. For Class Y, their first quiz consisted of multiple-choice questions. Class Z's first quiz covered the same material, but the questions required that students write a short answer for each question. Professor DuVall compared the scores for Class Y and Class Z and found that the mean score for Class Y was 76%, while the mean score for Class Z was 89%. In terms of memory retrieval processes, which of the following is consistent with this outcome? (A) Recognition processes led to higher scores than recall on this quiz. (B) Recall led to higher scores than recognition on this quiz. (C) The range is more accurate than the mean when interpreting this type of data. (D) The students' metacognition was a major influence on scores for Class Z, but not for Class Y.

(B) Recall led to higher scores than recognition on this quiz.

Which of the following is the best operational definition of superior autobiographical memory? (A) The ability to encode and retain information for later retrieval. (B) Recalling information about life events with over 90% accuracy. (C) A memory that allows the relatively permanent retention of information without limits regarding how much information can be stored. (D) A type of memory that relates to accumulated knowledge about the world.

(B) Recalling information about life events with over 90% accuracy.

Which of the following scenarios involves using cued recall? (A) Letitia uses a mnemonic device to help her remember the names of all the lobes of the brain. (B) Steven studies a list of word pairs and is later given the first word of each pair and asked to recall the second word in the pair. (C) To help her remember what she needs from the grocery store, Marjorie imagines walking through her kitchen and visualizing what is missing. (D) Kumail scores well on a multiple-choice quiz because he recognizes all of the correct answers when he sees them.

(B) Steven studies a list of word pairs and is later given the first word of each pair and asked to recall the second word in the pair.

To remember a list of words, Jerry tries walking through his bedroom and making associations between words on the list and various areas he visits in his bedroom. Jerry is trying to improve his memory encoding by using which of the following memory concepts? (A) distributed learning (B) the method of loci (C) maintenance retrieval (D) echoic memory

(B) the method of loci

In homes where parents do not use correct grammar, their children tend to make more grammatical errors. Which of the following concepts identifies a type of error children might make? (A) Telegraphic speech (B) Babbling (C) Overgeneralization (D) Non-verbal manual gestures

(C) Overgeneralization

By age six months, infants from different countries in the world will distinguish hearing a change in small units of sound. For example, in one study, when six-month old babies hear the RRR sound change to an LLL sound, they sucked faster on a special pacifier that measured their rate of sucking. By twelve months, however, Japanese children no longer distinguish these sounds since culturally, they are not exposed to them. Which of the following terms were researchers studying on a cross-cultural level? (A) Morpheme (B) Semantics (C) Phoneme (D) Syntax

(C) Phoneme

In an experiment evaluating encoding strategies, a researcher taught participants 15 new psychological concepts. One group took notes to help learn the concepts while the other group was asked to create a mnemonic device for each concept. In this experiment, what is the independent variable? (A) The number of concepts recalled on the test. (B) The group who used mnemonics. (C) The method used to learn the concepts. (D) The style of notes that participants used.

(C) The method used to learn the concepts.

A researcher wants to determine which studying technique would be more effective: massed practice or distributed practice. The researcher randomly assigns 30 students to two groups and gives them a list of vocabulary words to remember. One of the groups uses a massed practice technique. The other uses a distributed practice technique. The researcher gives the students a quiz four days later to see how well they remembered their list of words. He compared the scores for both groups. What is the dependent variable in this study? (A) The list of vocabulary words (B) The assigned study technique (C) The vocabulary quiz scores (D) The use of random assignment

(C) The vocabulary quiz scores

Short-term memory is best described in which of the following ways? (A) memory of how to perform an activity, such as riding a bike (B) memory of facts and general knowledge (C) memory that can hold only a small amount of information (D) memory of specific events

(C) memory that can hold only a small amount of information

Darnayia has been seeing a lot of social media ads about an exciting new sports simulation game. While several of her friends say that the game is their ideal example of a video game, others who have played the game complain that it was too expensive and not as fun as they expected. Darnayia buys the game. When her mother asks her why she chose that game, Darnayia only mentions the advice she heard about the game was the best one they've ever played. Which of the following cognitive processes explains why Darnayia can justify her purchase of the expensive game and ignore her concerns over the cost? (A) Mental set (B) Schemas (C) Priming (D) Confirmation bias

(D) Confirmation bias

Professor Jovan randomly assigns each student in her psychology class to one of three groups. Group X is required to post a journal entry each week in which they discuss some aspect of psychology in daily life. Group Y is required to take an online quiz about the material each week. Group Z was not instructed to do any additional activities. At the end of the class, Professor Jovan compares the final comprehensive exam scores for Groups X, Y, and Z. The results are shown in the figure. Which of the following psychological principles are best supported by the data in the figure? (A) Applying concepts to real-world situations improves learning. (B) Massed practice can be an effective study strategy in some situations. (C) Context-dependent memory is important for performing well in test situations. (D) Repeated testing can improve learning and memory.

(D) Repeated testing can improve learning and memory.

Who proposed the idea that language development could be explained with the principles of learning? (a) B. F. Skinner (b) Noam Chomsky (c) Steven Pinker (d) Benjamin Lee Whorf (e) Paul Broca

(a) B. F. Skinner

Which of the following demonstrates the representativeness heuristic? (a) Deciding that a new kid in school is a nerd because he looks like a nerd. (b) Fearing air travel because of memories of plane crashes. (c) Checking in every drawer to find some matches because matches are usually in drawers. (d) Having the solution to a word problem pop into your head because you have just successfully solved a similar problem. (e) Applying for jobs in several local grocery stores because your best friend just got a job in a grocery store.

(a) Deciding that a new kid in school is a nerd because he looks like a nerd.

When Gustavo goes through lists of inventory items and thinks about whether each one is a fruit or not, he remembers more of the items on those lists later than when he goes through lists of inventory items and does not think about what each item is. Which of the following concepts best explains Gustavo's performance?

Elaborative encoding, because engaging in deeper processing improves memory.

When studying for a vocabulary test, Catherine read one of her vocabulary words and its definition aloud several times. About twenty seconds later, she still remembered the word's meaning, but then she moved on to the next word in the list without engaging in any further strategies to enhance her memory. The next day, she tested herself on the same vocabulary word at the same time, in the same mood, and in the same location as when she had first studied the word, but she could not remember its definition. It is most likely that Catherine could not remember the word because she failed to engage which of the following memory functions?

Long-term memory, because Catherine failed to encode the word; therefore, the word did not become a part of her long-term memory.