Unit 2 AP Psych Test ACA 2025-26

Lock in bro

Figure Ground

The organization of your visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Grouping

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Similarity

Grouping similar things together

Closure

Perceiving incomplete figures as complete by filling in gaps.

Depth

One eye sets an image from left, one from right, brain merges them together

Visual Cliff Experiment

Babies had to lean over a fake cliff, but wouldn’t proving they could perceive depth

Retinal Disparity

Distance computed based on disparity between images

Convergence

Brain combines retinal images

Relative Clarity

Sharpness and clarity increase as you get closer to the object

Relative Size

“larger objects” are usually closer

Texture Gradient

More detail visible typically means it’s closer

Interposition

An object over another is perceived closer

Stroboscopic Effect

Illusion of continuous movement when viewing an image sequence

Phi Phenomenon

Movement illusion when lights blink alternatively

Autokinetic Effect

Natural eye movement when staring at a single light in a dark room

Color

Familiar objects have consistent color despite lighting changes.

Brightness

Constant object brightness as lighting changes

Size

Object has unchanging size as distance varies

Shape

Shape stays the same with rotation varience

Perceptual Adaptation

The ability to adapt to changed sensory input

Sternberg’s Components of Creativity

1. Expertise

2. Imaginative Thinking

3. Venturesome Personality

4. Intrinsic Motivation

5. Creative Environment

Convergent and Divergent thinking

Convergent thinking is linear and logical, used for well-defined problems with a single right answer, whereas divergent thinking is creative and open-ended

Executive Functions

Cognitive skills that work together to do goal oriented things

Algorithms and Heuristics

An algorithm is a step-by-step description of a way to calculate or find something. A heuristic is an algorithm that is made to find an okay solution for a problem in a reasonable amount of time

Insight

Sudden realization of the solution

Kohler’s Chimpanzee Study

Chimp used a shorter stick to pull in a larger one, which then got him fruit

Nudge

Framing choices in ways to encourage people to make certain decisions

Confirmation Bias

Seeking evidence for our own ideas

Overconfidence

Tendency to be more confident than correct, overestimating our knowledge

Fixation/Fixedness

Inability to change perspectives

Mental Set

Tendency to approach a problem in a specific way

Belief Perseverance

Persistence of one’s initial conception even after being discredited

Intuition

Recognition born of experience

Representative Heuristics

Judging based on if they match prototypes

Availability Heuristics

Our tendency to think that whatever is easiest for us to recall

Memory

Learning that persists over time

Recall

Retrieving info that was learned earlier

Recognition

Identifying previously learned things

Relearning

Learning something quicker when you learn it a second time

3 Stages of Memory

Sensory Memory → Short Term Memory → Long Term Memory

3 Stage Multistore Model of Memory

proposes that memory moves through three stores: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

Long-Term Memory

Relatively permanent and limitless archive of memory

Short-Term Memory

Temporary storage for a small amount of information (usually only a few things)

Sensory Memory

Immediate and very brief recording of information

Rehearsal

(Overlearning/Practice) The repetition of information to store it in memory

Working Memory

the brain's active workspace for temporarily holding and manipulating information

Central Executive 

Memory component that coordinates activities of the phonological loop

Phonological Loop

Memory component that briefly holds auditory information

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Briefly holds information of appearance or location

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

Occurs in the hippocampus, a persistent increase in the strength of synaptic connections in the brain after high-frequency stimulation

Neurogenesis

Formation of new neurons

Capacity of Long Term Memory

Essentially unlimited

Frontal Lobe

In charge of working memory

Hippocampus

Processes explicit/conscious memories (doesn’t store but directs)

Cerebellum

Forms and stores implicit memories created by classical conditioning

Basal Ganglia

Forms memories based on skills

Amygdala

The amygdala enhances the encoding and consolidation of emotionally charged events, does their retrieval, and the modulation of the emotional intensity associated with memories.

Purpose of Memory Consolidation

To store all memories in one place (Cortex)

Breakdown of Memory

3 stages, encoding, storage, and retrieval

Flashbulb Memories

Clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

Priming

Activation of certain associations (unconsciously)

Encoding Specificity Principle

memory recall is more successful when the cues present during retrieval match the cues present during encoding

Serial Position Effect

Tendency to recall last items in a list, the best, or the first items after a delay

Interleaving

Mixing studying different subjects boosts retention and protects against overconfidence

State-Dependant Memory

The phenomenon where recall is improved when the internal physical or emotional state during retrieval matches the state during the original memory encoding

Mood-Congruent Memory

Tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with a current good or bad mood

Encoding Failure

Info not encoded for long term storage is displaced and lost

Storage Decay

Memory decays over time sharply, then levels off

Retrieval Failure

Stored info that is unable to be accessed

Tip of The Tongue Phenomenon

You know the information but cannot access it

Motivated Forgetting (Repression)

A psychological phenomenon where individuals intentionally or unconsciously suppress memories that are distressing, anxiety-provoking, or harmful to their self-esteem

Interference

Prior learning interfering with newly learned information

Amnesia

A psychological condition characterized by a significant loss of memory function, inability to recall information

Retrograde and Anterograde Amnesia

Retrograde is inability to remember old info while Anterograde is inability to form new memories

Proactive and Retroactive Interference (PORN)

Proactive is old disrupting new info while Retroactive is new disrupting old info

Reconsolidation

Replacing an original memory with a slightly altered version when its replayed

Misinformation Effect

When a memory has been corrupted by misleading info

Elizabeth Loftus

One of the nation's leading experts on memory

Deja Vu

A sense that you’ve experienced something before

Source Amnesia

Forgetting where something was learned or misattributing the source as something else

Problems From False Memories

legal consequences like wrongful convictions due to unreliable eyewitness testimony, or leading to emotional distress and mental health issues

Intelligence Tests

A method for assesing intelligence with numerical scores

Aptititude Tests

Predicts what you will be able to learn

Achievement Tests

Reflects what has been learned

Francis Galton (1883?)

Eugenics: Measuring human traits and encouraging the best ones to reproduce (Racist)

Alfred Binet (1905)

Binet-Simon Scale: a young age intelligence test to identify children who needed educational support

Mental Age: a measure of intelligence based on the average abilities of children at a specific chronological age

Lewis Terman (1912?)

Stanford-Binet Scale: Adapted Binet’s ideas, a comprehensive psychological test used to assess the intellectual and cognitive abilities of individuals aged 2 to 85+

Intelligence Quotient (IQ): Mental age divided by real age multiplied by 100

David Weschler (1949)

WAIS: A much more developed intelligence scale, most widely used test for verbal and performance tasks

WISC: a series of cognitive ability tests for children aged 6 to 16

Psychometrics

Study of the measurement of human abilities

Standardization

Uniform testing procedures allows for meaningful comparisons, a symmetrical probability distribution (data clusters around the mean)

Normal Curve

Describes the distribution of many types of data (bell-shaped)

Reliability

The extent to which a test yields consistent results

Validity

The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it’s supposed to

Content Validity

Samples the behavior of interest

Construct Validity

Measures a concept

Predictive Validity

Predicts the behavior it is designed to

Flynn Effect

Rise in intelligence test performance over time

Fluid Intelligence

Ability to reason speedily and abstractly (Decreases with age)

Crystallized Intelligence 

Accumulated knowledge (Increases with age)

Longitudinal Studies

Research methods that repeatedly follow the same group of individuals over an extended period of time