AP Psychology Cumulative Exam #1: Units 0 and 1 Review

Practice vocabulary flashcards for AP Psychology Cumulative Exam #1 covering research methods, biological bases of behavior, consciousness, and sensation/perception.

Nature vs. Nurture

The enduring psychological debate concerning the relative contributions of genetic inheritance (nature) and environmental factors (nurture) to human development and behavior.

Biological Perspective

A psychological school of thought that focuses on how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences, and how genes combine with environment to influence individual differences.

Evolutionary Perspective

A school of thought focused on how natural selection of traits has promoted the survival and reproduction of genes and shaped universal human behaviors.

Biopsychosocial approach

An integrated framework that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis to explain mental processes and behavior.

Hindsight bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it; also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and recall information in a way that confirms preexisting beliefs while ignoring or discounting contradictory evidence.

Perceiving order in random events (ex. Gambler’s Fallacy)

The cognitive bias where individuals perceive meaningful patterns or sequences in purely random events, such as falsely believing that past random occurrences influence future independent outcomes.

Operational Definitions

Carefully worded, objective statements of the exact procedures and measurements used in a research study to define a research variable.

Correlation Coefficient (r)

A statistical index, denoted as $r$, representing the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two variables, ranging from $-1.00$ to $+1.00$.

Illusory Correlation

The perception of a relationship between two variables when no actual relationship exists.

Independent Variable

The factor manipulated by the experimenter whose effect is being studied.

Dependent Variable

The outcome factor that is measured to determine whether it is affected by changes in the independent variable.

Confounding Variable

A factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment, threatening internal validity.

Single/Double Blind

An experimental procedure where either the participants (single-blind) or both the participants and researchers (double-blind) are unaware of who has received the actual treatment or a placebo.

Normal curve

A symmetrical, bell-shaped distribution where approximately $68\%$ of scores fall within one standard deviation of the mean.

p<.05

The standard threshold for statistical significance indicating that the probability of observed differences occurring by random chance is less than $5\%$.

Informed Consent

An ethical principle requiring that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate in a study.

Debriefing

The post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions used, given to participants upon completion.

Stanley Milgram’s Obedience study

A landmark psychological study measuring participants' willingness to obey an authority figure who instructed them to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to an unseen learner.

Phil Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment

A social psychology study demonstrating how role-playing in an assigned environment (guards versus prisoners) rapidly shaped extreme behaviors, leading to the study being halted early.

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body and mobilizes its energy in stressful situations (fight-or-flight response).

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body and conserves energy (rest-and-digest response).

Refractory Period

A brief period of inactivity following the firing of an action potential, during which a neuron cannot fire again until repolarization is complete.

All-or-Nothing Principle

The rule stating that a neuron will fire an action potential at full strength or not at all once the stimulation reaches the threshold.

Reuptake

The reabsorption of a neurotransmitter by the pre-synaptic sending neuron after it has transmitted a neural impulse across the synapse.

Agonist

A molecule that increases or mimics a neurotransmitter's action by binding to and stimulating a receptor.

Antagonist

A molecule that inhibits or blocks a neurotransmitter's action by occupying its receptor site without activating it.

Brain Plasticity (neuroplasticity)

The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life, particularly in response to learning, experience, or after damage.

Reticular Activating System (Reticular Formation)

A nerve network within the brain stem that plays a central role in controlling alertness, arousal, and sleep-wake transitions.

Cerebellum

The structure located at the rear of the brain stem responsible for coordinating voluntary movement, balance, and nonverbal procedural learning.

Hippocampus

A limbic system structure vital for the processing and consolidation of explicit, conscious memories into long-term storage.

Amygdala

Two neural clusters in the limbic system that are primarily involved in the processing of emotions, especially fear and aggression.

Corpus Callosum

The large band of neural axon fibers connecting the left and right cerebral hemispheres, facilitating communication between them.

Broca’s Area

A region in the frontal lobe, typically in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech production.

Wernicke’s Area

A region in the temporal lobe, typically in the left hemisphere, involved in language comprehension and meaningful expression.

Circadian Rhythm

The biological clock that governs regular bodily fluctuations (such as body temperature and wakefulness) on roughly a $24$-hour cycle.

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

A pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that regulates the circadian rhythm by signaling the pineal gland to adjust melatonin secretion.

Absolute Threshold

The minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a specific stimulus at least $50\%$ of the time.

Just-Noticeable Difference (Difference Threshold)

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection at least $50\%$ of the time.

Weber’s Law

The principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant fixed amount) to be perceived as different.

Sensory Adaptation

Diminished sensory sensitivity resulting from continuous, unchanging exposure to a stimulus.

Transduction

The sensory process of converting outside physical stimulus energies into neural impulses that the nervous system can interpret.

Rods

Retinal photoreceptors that detect black, white, and gray, and are essential for peripheral and twilight or low-light vision.

Cones

Retinal photoreceptors concentrated near the center of the retina (fovea) that function in well-lit conditions to detect fine detail and color.

Opponent-Process Theory

The theory that color perception depends on three opposing retinal neural channels (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black), explaining afterimages.

Cochlea

A coiled, fluid-filled bony tube in the inner ear containing hair cells on the basilar membrane that trigger nerve impulses for audition.

Gate Control Theory

The theory proposing that the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks or allows pain signals to pass upward to the brain.