AP Psychology Easy practice

15 questions

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Easy practice

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Question 1

After studying Spanish for two years, Elena now has difficulty remembering the French she learned in high school. This forgetting is best explained by:

A.Proactive interferenceB.Retroactive interferenceC.Decay theoryD.Encoding failure

Question 2

Which neurotransmitter is most directly implicated in Parkinson's disease due to the degeneration of neurons in the substantia nigra that produce it?

A.SerotoninB.NorepinephrineC.AcetylcholineD.Dopamine

Question 3

The DSM-5 is the primary tool used by mental health professionals in the United States to:

A.Prescribe medication dosages for psychiatric disordersB.Classify and diagnose psychological disorders using standardized criteriaC.Assess intelligence and academic achievement levelsD.Determine the causes of psychological disorders through biological testing

Question 4

Knowing how to ride a bicycle without consciously thinking about each movement is BEST classified as which type of long-term memory?

A.Procedural memoryB.Episodic memoryC.Semantic memoryD.Working memory

Question 5

After a football game, fans of the winning team say 'We won!' while fans of the losing team say 'They lost.' This tendency is an example of:

A.The fundamental attribution errorB.Basking in reflected glory (BIRGing)C.The self-serving biasD.Deindividuation

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Question 6

A therapist treats a patient with anxiety disorder by teaching deep breathing and relaxation, then gradually exposing the patient to feared stimuli from least to most anxiety-provoking. This technique is called:

A.Flooding (implosive therapy)B.Aversion therapyC.Systematic desensitizationD.Token economy

Question 7

When a person sees a snake on a hiking trail, their heart rate accelerates, pupils dilate, and breathing quickens. Which division of the nervous system is PRIMARILY responsible for these responses?

A.Parasympathetic nervous systemB.Somatic nervous systemC.Sympathetic nervous systemD.Central nervous system

Question 8

A teacher reads a list of 20 words aloud and asks students to recall as many as possible. Most students remember the FIRST few words better than the middle ones. This is BEST explained by the:

A.Recency effectB.Primacy effectC.Spacing effectD.Encoding specificity

Question 9

What is the KEY difference between an algorithm and a heuristic in problem-solving?

A.Algorithms guarantee a correct solution but may be slow; heuristics are mental shortcuts that are faster but may produce errors.B.Algorithms only work on numerical problems; heuristics work on language problems.C.Heuristics are learned through formal education; algorithms develop naturally.D.Algorithms always require a computer; heuristics are used only by humans.

Question 10

Erik Erikson proposed eight psychosocial stages. A 70-year-old professor reviews his career with deep satisfaction and few regrets. According to Erikson, this person has successfully resolved which stage?

A.Generativity vs. StagnationB.Intimacy vs. IsolationC.Industry vs. InferiorityD.Ego Integrity vs. Despair

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Question 11

REM sleep is characterized by:

A.Slow brain waves similar to those during deep sleep, with relaxed musclesB.Rapid eye movements, active brain waves, and skeletal muscle paralysisC.The deepest stage of sleep, when sleepwalking and night terrors usually occurD.A brief transitional phase between waking and falling asleep

Question 12

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Carl Rogers's person-centered therapy both belong to which broad personality tradition?

A.Psychodynamic perspectiveB.Trait perspectiveC.Humanistic perspectiveD.Social-cognitive perspective

Question 13

Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance predicts that when people behave in ways inconsistent with their attitudes, they will:

A.Increase the behavior to resolve the inconsistencyB.Change their attitudes to align with the behaviorC.Seek social support for their original attitudeD.Experience positive emotions from acting contrary to beliefs

Question 14

In language, phonemes are BEST described as:

A.The smallest units of meaningful sound (e.g., the /b/ in "bat").B.The smallest units of meaning (e.g., the prefix "un-" in "undo").C.The rules for combining words into grammatical sentences.D.The implied meaning of a sentence based on context.

Question 15

A neurotransmitter that generally inhibits neural firing and is linked to anxiety disorders when levels are low is:

A.DopamineB.SerotoninC.AcetylcholineD.GABA