ap psych sem 2 midterm study guide

ucscout 2026 summer

phones

the most basic speech sounds for all humans

phonemes

the most speech sounds of a language

morphemes

speech sounds collected into meaningful units (eg. syllables or words)

syntax

the rules for word order in sentences

aphasias

impairment of language

linguistic determinism

belief that language determines the way we think

latent learning

subconscious learning

discovery learning

learning through interaction

social learning

observational learning, imitation of other people

learned helplessness

when someone faces a stressful situation repeatedly with no control over the outcome

classical conditioning

when someone learns to associate two completely different stimuli in their environment

neutral stimulus

no trigger

unconditioned stimulus

natural trigger

unconditioned response

natural emotional reaction

conditioned stimulus

learned trigger

delay conditioning

timing method: cs starts first and stays active until ucs appears (warning)

temporal conditioning

ucs is delivered in predictable intervals (schedule)

spontaneous recovery

when a learned response appears after it’s thought to be extinct

stimulus generalization

learned response to similar stimuli

operant conditioning

behaviors are shaped by consequences

law of effect

favorable consequences = repeated, while unfavorable consequences = not repeated

positive reinforcement

increase behavior by adding reward

negative punishment

decreasing behavior by taking something away

fixed ratio (FR)

a behavior is only reinforced after being performed a set number of times

variable interval (VI)

a behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable, changing amount of time has passed