Flash Card Fever!
The A.P. Exam in Psychology is
vocabulary-driven. You must
know it! So here we go . . .
Unit 1: Intro, History,
Perspectives
1. A school of psychology based on the
notion that the task of psychology is to
analyze consciousness into its basic
elements and see how they are related.
What the mind is.
 physiology
 structuralism
 functionalism
 ethnocentrism
2. The premise that knowledge should
be acquired through observation.
collectivism
 humanism
 ethnocentrism
 empiricism

3. A school of psychology based on the
belief that psychology should
investigate the purpose of
consciousness. What the mind does.
 physiology
 structuralism
 functionalism
 ethnocentrism
4. Putting personal goals ahead of
group goals and defining one’s
identity in terms of personal
attributes rather than group
memberships.
 collectivism
 individualism
 ethnocentrism
 empiricism
5. A theoretical orientation based on
the premise that psychology should
study only observable behaviors.
 evolutionary
 humanism
 cognition
 behaviorism
psychology
Unit 2: Research Methodology and
Statistics
6. The constitution of groups in a
study such that all subjects have an
equal chance of being assigned to
the control group or the
experimental group.
 random
assignment
 random selection
 representative sample
 normal distribution
7. The condition that exists when the
probability that the observed findings
are due to chance is very low.
 expectancy
effect
 social desirability bias
 statistical significance
 operational definition
8. Any variables other than the
independent variable that seem likely
to influence the dependent variable in
a study.
 response
variables
 extraneous variables
 standard variables
 mean variables
9. A research strategy in which neither
subjects nor experimenters know which
subjects are in the experimental or
control groups.
 single-blind
 double-blind
 control
 experiment
10. The repetition of a study to see
whether the earlier results are
duplicated.
 correlation
 frequency
 replication
 population
distribution
11. It describes the actions or
operations that will be made to
measure or control a variable.
 operational
definition
 illusory correlation
 standard deviation
 inferential statistics
12. The score that falls exactly in the
center of a distribution of scores.
 mean
 median
 mode
 range
13. A tendency to give socially
approved answers to questions about
oneself on a survey or questionnaire.
 experimenter
 control
bias
bias
 response bias
 social desirability bias
14. The fact that subjects’ expectations
can lead them to experience some
change even though they receive an
empty, fake, or ineffectual treatment.
 sampling
bias
 response set
 placebo effect
 confounding variable
15. An orderly arrangement of scores
in a table indicating how often each
score occurs.
 range
table
 descriptive
distribution
 normal distribution
 frequency distribution
Unit 3: Biological Bases of
Behavior
16. A junction where information is
transmitted from one neuron to the
next.
 synapse
 axon
 dendrite
 soma
17. A process in which
neurotransmitters are sponged up from
the synaptic cleft (gap) by the
presynaptic membrane.
 action
potential
 genetic mapping
 adaptation
 reuptake
18. Axons that carry sensory
information inward to the central
nervous system from the periphery of
the body.
 efferent
nerve fibers
 afferent nerve fibers
 dendrites
 glial cells
19. The length of time after an action
potential during which another action
potential cannot begin.
 absolute
threshold
 neurotransmission
 absolute refractory
period
 resting potential
20. The largest and most complicated
region of the brain, encompassing a
variety of structures including the
thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic
system, and cerebrum.
 hindbrain
 midbrain
 forebrain
 topbrain
Matching:
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
chemical that mimics the
action of a neurotransmitter
chemical that opposes the
action of a neurotransmitter
increases the likelihood that
a neuron will fire
decreases the likelihood that
a neuron will fire
voltage change at the
receptor site on a
postsynaptic cell membrane





post synaptic
potential
excitatory PSP
inhibitory PSP
agonist
antagonist
Unit 4: Sensation and Perception
26. The sensory system that responds
to gravity and keeps people informed of
their body’s location in space (and
keeps them balanced).
 gustatory
system
 olfactory system
 vestibular system
 kinesthetic system
27. A gradual decline in sensitivity to a
prolonged, unchanging stimulus.
 sensory
reception
 sensory adaptation
 signal detection
 dark adaptation
28. The idea that incoming pain
sensations must pass through a gate in
the spinal cord that can be closed, thus
blocking pain signals.
 gate-control
theory
 bottom up processing
 top down processing
 gate-closure hypothesis
29. The illusion of movement created
by presenting visual stimuli in rapid
succession.
 feature
detection
 depth perception
 visual illusion
 phi phenomenon
30. Theory of color vision – says that
the eye has three types of receptors
with differing sensitivities to different
wavelengths.
 place
theory
 frequency theory
 trichromatic theory
 opponent process theory
Matching:
figureground
relationship
 perceptual
set
 transduction
 feature
detection
 afterimage
 retinal
disparity

31. A visual image that persists after
the stimulus is removed.
32. A readiness (expectation) to
perceive a stimulus in a
particular way.
33. Objects project images to slightly
different locations on the left and
right retinas, so the right and left
eyes see slightly diff. views.
(Binocular cue to depth)
34. Neurons responding selectively to
very specific aspects of more
complex stimuli.
35. The process by which incoming
sensory stimuli are changed from
energy to neural messages that
go to parts of the brain.
Unit 5: States of
Consciousness
36. The 24-hour biological cycles found
in humans and many other species.
 biological
rhythms
 circadian rhythms
 consciousness
 dissociation
37. According to Freud, the hidden or
disguised meaning of dreams.
 night
terrors
 sleep spindles
 manifest content
 latent content
38. A disease marked by sudden and
irresistible onsets of sleep during
normal waking periods.
 narcolepsy
 sleep
apnea
 night terrors
 somnambulism
39. A progressive decrease in a
person’s responsiveness to a drug.
 adaptation
 dissociation
 dependence
 tolerance
40. Chemical substances that modify
mental, emotional, or behavioral
functioning.
 rebound
drugs
 REM drugs
 psychoactive drugs
 neurotransmitters
Unit 6: Learning
41. In Dr. Pavlov’s experiment, the
dogs’ salivation in response to the bell:
 unconditioned
stimulus
 conditioned stimulus
 unconditioned response
 conditioned response
42. The strengthening of a response
because it is followed by the removal of
an aversive stimulus.
 punishment
 positive
reinforcement
 negative reinforcement
 operant reinforcement
43. A type of learning in which an
organism acquires a response that
decreases or ends some aversive
stimulation.
 avoidance
learning
 escape learning
 classical learning
 latent learning
44. A reinforcement schedule in which
the reinforcer is given after an
unpredictable number of nonreinforced
responses. (The MOST reinforcing of
all schedules!)
 variable-interval
 fixed-interval
 variable-ratio
 fixed-ratio
45. The reinforcement of closer and
closer approximations of a desired
response.
 extinction
 instinctive
drift
 shaping
 generalization
Unit 7: Memory
46. Loss of memories for events that
occur after a head injury. Inability to
form new memories.
 retrograde
amnesia
 anterograde amnesia
 dissociative amnesia
 semantic amnesia
47. An unlimited capacity store that
can hold information over time.
 sensory
memory
 short term memory
 long term memory
 episodic memory
48. Forming a memory code. Getting
information from short-term to longterm memory.
 consolidation
 encoding
 recall
 attention
49. A memory problem that occurs
when new information impairs the
retention of previously learned
information.
 decay
 forgetting
 proactive
interference
 retroactive interference
50. Memory of general knowledge
(facts) that is not tied to the time when
the information was learned.
 episodic
memory
 semantic memory
 flashbulb memory
 prospective memory
Unit 8: Cognition Thinking and Language
51. A methodical step by step
procedure for trying all possible
alternatives in searching for a solution
to a problem.
 mental
set
 availability heuristic
 algorithm
 representativeness heuristic
52. The smallest unit of meaning in a
language.
 morpheme
 phoneme
 syntax
 prototype
53. In children, incorrect generalization
of grammatical rules to irregular cases
where they do not apply. (Ex: I goed to
school.)
 overextension
 underextension
 framing
 overregularization
54. The tendency to seek information
that supports one’s decisions and
beliefs while ignoring disconfirming
information.
 linguistic
relativity
 conjunction fallacy
 mental set
 confirmation bias
55. Basing the estimated probability of
an event on how similar it is to the
typical prototype of that event.
 schema
 mental
set
 availability heuristic
 representativeness heuristic
Unit 9
Intelligence, Creativity, and
Psychological Testing
56. What kind of tests assess
specific types of mental abilities.
They are designed to measure
potential more than knowledge.




achievement tests
aptitude tests
intelligence tests
personality tests
57. ___ refers to the ability of a
test to measure what it was
designed to measure.
 reliability
 standardization
 norms
 validity
58. It is estimated by correlating
subjects’ scores on a test with their
scores on another measure of the
same trait assessed by the test.
 content
validity
 construct validity
 criterion-related validity
 test-retest validity
59. A child’s mental age divided
by chronological age and
multiplied by 100.
 intelligence
quotient
 mental aptitude
 giftedness
 savant syndrome
60. _____ ratio is an estimate of
the proportion of trait variability in a
population that is determined by
variations in genetic inheritance.
 heritability
 variability
 enrichment
 validity