AP Psychology Assessment Review

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key psychological, neurological, and biological concepts from AP Classroom practice questions.

REM Sleep

A sleep stage in a healthy adult sleep cycle that occurs after cycling through the other NREM sleep stages.

NREM Sleep

The sleep stages that an adult cycles through prior to entering REM sleep.

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division of the nervous system that helps the body respond to stress and is responsible for fearful reactions.

Natural Selection

The evolutionary process wherein individuals possessing advantageous survival traits (such as camouflage coloration during an environmental shift) survive predation and reproduce at higher rates, increasing those traits in subsequent generations.

Random Assignment

The procedure of placing research participants arbitrarily into either control or experimental conditions, which is necessary to conduct a controlled experiment.

Thalamus

A brain structure whose major role is relaying sensory signals to the cortex; all sensory inputs except olfactory signals must pass through it first.

Olfactory Signals

The only sensory signals that reach the cortex directly without first passing through the thalamus.

Central Nervous System

The primary division of the nervous system consisting of the structures of the brain and spinal cord.

REM Sleep

A sleep stage entered in a healthy adult sleep cycle only after cycling through the preceding NREM sleep stages.

NREM Sleep Stages

The non-rapid eye movement stages of sleep that must be cycled through before an individual enters REM sleep.

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division of the nervous system that helps the body respond to stress and is responsible for triggering fearful reactions.

Natural Selection

The process by which organisms with advantageous heritable traits (such as protective coloration) experience greater survival and breeding success, increasing the prevalence of that trait in subsequent generations.

Random Assignment

The procedure of arbitrarily placing participants into either control or experimental conditions, which is necessary to conduct a controlled experiment.

Thalamus

A brain structure whose major role is relaying sensory signals to the cortex for all senses except olfaction.

Olfactory Signals

The only type of sensory signals that reach the cortex without first passing through the thalamus.

Central Nervous System

The division of the nervous system that consists specifically of the brain and spinal cord structures.

Random assignment

The practice of arbitrarily placing participants into either control or experimental conditions, which is necessary to conduct a controlled experiment.

Thalamus

A brain structure that relays most sensory signals to the cortex, through which all sensory signals pass except for olfactory signals.

Central nervous system

The major division of the nervous system composed of the brain and spinal cord structures.

REM sleep

A sleep stage entered by an adult with a healthy sleep cycle after other NREM sleep stages have been cycled through.

Sympathetic nervous system

The part of the nervous system that helps the body respond to stress and is responsible for fearful reactions.

Natural selection

The process by which organisms with traits that allow them to better survive environmental challenges and breed produce more offspring, increasing the prevalence of those characteristics in subsequent generations.