AP PSYCHOLOGY PRACTICE TEST I (WITH EXPLANATIONS) EXAM 2023 Which of the following is an example of habituation? (A) The first time Ilene wear high -heeled shoes, she finds them extremely uncomfortable. (B) Ilene can only tolerate wearing high -heeled shoes for a few hours because they hurt. (C) Ilene wore high -heeled shoes for the first time two weeks ago; now she wears them every day. (D) High -heeled shoes always hurt Ilene's fee, but she forces herself to wear them because they are fashionable. (E) When Ilene wears high-heeled shoes all day he feet usually only hurt for the first few minutes. - Correct Answer -E - Habituation —the process whereby a stimulus has less effect after repeated or continuous exposure. Predict the Answer: Look for the scenario in which somebo dy is less affected by something because she gets used to it. Choice (A) simply states that Ilene wore high heels once and found them uncomfortable, (eliminate (A)). Choice (B) states that Ilene can only stand wearing high heels for a few hours, suggesting there is no habituation (eliminate (B) too). Choice (C) states that Ilene wore heels for the first time two weeks ago and now wears them every day. Who cares? There's no information about discomfort or her response to it. This trick answer choice describe s the development of a "habit" in the ordinary sense of the word, not "habituation" as a technical term (eliminate (C). Similarly, (D) tells us that Ilene forces herself to wear heels because they're fashionable, even though they hurt. There's nothing to s uggest she has habituated to the discomfort. Choice (E) is exactly what we need here. When Ilene wears heels they only hurt for the first few minutes (because she gets used to them). Which of the following is NOT a symptom of major depressive disorder? (A) Loss of appetite (B) Mania (C) Social withdrawal (D) Prolonged feelings of sadness (E) Suicidal ideation - Correct Answer -B - Mania, a symptom of bipolar disorder, doesn't fit in with the rest of the depressive symptoms listed. All other answers are symp toms of severe depression. Joe's psychotherapist often asks him to recount his dreams, discuss his early childhood, and explore possible feelings and motivations of which he is unaware. His therapist would best be described as (A) behavioral (B) psychodyn amic (C) client -centered (D) cognitive -behavioral (E) eclectic - Correct Answer -B - Joe's therapy deals with dreams, his early childhood, and motivations and feelings he's not aware of (i.e. "unconscious"). Yep, Freud! These are the hallmarks of psychodyna mic (Freudian -based) therapy and are generally associated with any of the other three schools of thought listed (So (A), (C), and (D) can be eliminated). Choice (E) is wrong because there's nothing to suggest that Joe's therapist is eclectic (i.e., that th ey borrow different techniques from various schools of thought). Every aspect of therapy mentioned is associated with psychodynamic theory, so (B) is correct. Which of the following groups of quiz scores has the highest standard deviation? (A) 80, 80, 80, 82, 85 (B) 90, 91, 93, 95, 98 (C) 50, 53, 54, 54 (D) 60, 65, 75, 84, 98 (E) 70, 70, 79 - Correct Answer -D - Highest standard deviation means that the scores are spread out from the mean (arithmetic average) more than in the other choices. Predict the Answer: Look for the group of numbers with the widest range. Here that would clearly be (D). Jill commits a minor criminal offense. Consequently, a judge orders her to perform community service: picking up garbage along the side of the highway . This scenario is best described as (A) positive reinforcement (B) negative reinforcement (C) shaping (D) negative reinforcement (E) positive punishment - Correct Answer -E - Circle a judge orders. Students often get these answers choices confused. Remembe r that "reinforcement" always means you;re trying to increase behavior that you want to see more of, while "punishment" always means that you're trying to decrease behavior that you want to eliminate. You can get rid of (A) and (D) on this basis; the judge obviously doesn't want Jill to commit more crimes. Don't get confused by the words "positive" and "negative" in this context: they don't mean good or bad. "Positive punishment" simply means that you're administering an unpleasant or undesirable stimulus t o the subject to decrease the unwanted behavior, while "negative punishment" means that you're removing a pleasant or desirable stimulus. If the judge had fined Jill, thereby taking her money, that would be an instance of negative punishment. Since she's b eing forced to pick up garbage instead, the punishment is "positive" ((B) is wrong and (E) is correct). Choice (C), shaping, refers to the process of rewarding successive approximation to a target goal. If Jill were having difficulty meeting her daily garb age quota, so her supervisor praised her every time she picked up a piece of garbage, emptied her bucket properly, etc., that would be considered shaping. On a public street, Dave is accosted by a stranger who proceeds to rob him. According to a social ps ychological theory, his chances of receiving help from someone are greatest if how many people witness the incident? (A) 0 (B) 1 (C) 2 (D) 3 (E) 4 - Correct Answer -B - Bystander effect. Research has shown that people are more likely to render assistance to a stranger when they are the only ones present. The more people around at the time, the greater the tendency to assume somebody else will intervene (i.e., there is a diffusion of responsibility; (B) is correct). Choice (A) defies common sense (If no one's there, no one can help). Which of the following scientists is most closely associated with the "collective unconscious"? (A) Sigmund Freud (B) Carl Jung (C) B.F. Skinner (D) Ivan Pavlov (E) William James - Correct Answer -B - The term "collective unconsci ous," which refers to images and beliefs that all humans share, is associated with Carl Jung ((B) is correct). Freud (who taught Jung) developed the idea of the unconscious and Jung expanded on it in this way ((A) is wrong). Pavlov, (D), and Skinner, (C), are both known for their respective seminal experiments in behaviorism (so neither dealt with the realm of the unconscious). William James, (E), is know as the father of American psychology. A drug counselor observes that her client is extremely lethargic and his pupils are constricted. Which of the following illegal drugs is the client most likely to have taken? (A) Cocaine (B) Heroin (C) LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) (D) Methamphetamine (E) Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) - Correct Answer -B - If you didn't know how various drugs affect the pupils, the phrase "extremely lethargic" should be enough to get you through this question. Which drugs make you extremely lethargic? Predict t he Answer: Opiates like heroin (certainly not stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine). Eliminate (A) and (D). Serotonergic hallucinogens like LSD may put some people in a bit of a daze as they react to nonexistent stimuli, but they don't make you extr emely tired ((C) is out). Neither does ecstasy, which acts as both a stimulant and a hallucinogen ((E) is out as well). All the drugs on this list except heron actually cause mydriasis (dilation of the pupils), while opiates cause miosis (constriction of t he pupils). A researcher reads the following lists of words to a group of subjects in this order: horse, nose, book, dog, lamp, mind, train, glass, ice, paint, hat, and chair. Then he asks the subjects to write down all the words they remember. On average , the group will (A) be more likely to remember the word "horse" than the word "chair," owing to the recency effect (B) be more likely to remember the word "nose" than the word "mind," owing to the recency effect (C) be more likely to remember the words "h orse" and "chair" than the word "train," owing to serial position effects (D) be more likely to remember the words in the middle of the list than those at the beginning, owing to the primary effect (E) be more likely to remember certain words randomly than to recall any of the words based on serial position - Correct Answer -C - The answer choices all deal with serial position effects: the "primacy effect" (we're more likely to remember words at the beginning of a list) and the "recency effect" (we're more l ikely to remember words at the end of a list). Predict the Answer: The words at the beginning and end of the list are most likely, on average, to be recalled. (C) is correct. The other choices are all inconsistent with serial position effects. Robert sees an angry bear approach him and runs as fast as he can to escape. Which of the following bodily changes would be most likely to occur as Robert is running from the bear? (A) Increased parasympathetic activity (B) Decreased respiration (C) Decreased sympath etic activity (D) Increased epinephrine levels (E) Decreased adrenaline levels - Correct Answer -D - Robert is running from a bear and is undoubtedly scared. Predict the Answer: The fight or flight response! You can eliminate (B) and (E) through common sens e and basic knowledge; respiration and adrenaline increase when we are frightened. As for the remaining choices, remember this idea: in a crisis, the nervous system that is "sympathetic" responds (eliminate (C)). The parasympathetic nervous system is the o ne that helps return the body to homeostasis after the emergency is over (so (A) is wrong and (D) must be the answer). Epinephrine is just another name for adrenaline, which is triggered during fight or flight. Linda gives all employees of her company a 2 % raise every January. She rewards her employee on which type of schedule? (A) Fixed -interval (B) Variable -ratio (C) Fixed -variable (D) Fixed -ratio (E) Variable -interval - Correct Answer -A - Here you're being asked what type of reward/reinforcement schedul e is being used. Linda rewards her employees every January, and there's no mention of output or required behavior on the part of the employees. Predict the Answer: A fixed -interval schedule, (A). If you forgot your reinforcement schedules, you can use proc ess of elimination. Since there's no variation in this scenario (rewards always comes in January), you can eliminate any choice beginning with the word "variable" —(B) and (E). Since time is the factor that determines reinforcement here, not output, "interv al" is a better bet than "ratio" ((D) is out and (A) is correct). There is no such thing as a fixed -variable schedule, (C), and since nothing varies in this scenario and "interval" indicates time, (A) is clearly the better choice for a guess.
