THESE ARE THE OBJECTIVES FOR 3 UNITS BETWEEN MT1 & MT2
States of Consciousness Unit Objectives
1.
Define Consciousness. (text)
2.
Distinguish among the various levels of conscious activity: conscious, nonconscious,
preconscious, and unconscious. Give an example of each. (text & Lecture)
3.
Define state of consciousness and altered state of consciousness. (text)
4.
Discuss the physiological changes that occur during REM sleep. Describe a night’s
sleep and the changes in sleeping patterns that occur across the lifespan. (text &
lecture)
5.
Discuss the symptoms of insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, sudden infant death
syndrome (SIDS), nightmares, night terrors, sleepwalking, and REM behavior
disorder, and indicate during which stages of sleep they occur. (text & lecture –
further info to follow from video)
6.
Define dreams and lucid dreaming. (text & lecture)
7.
Define hypnosis and describe the process of becoming hypnotized. (text & lecture)
8.
Compare and contrast the state, role, and dissociation theories of hypnosis. (text &
lecture)
9.
Define psychoactive drugs and psychopharmacology. Explain the function of the
blood-brain barrier and discuss how agonist and antagonist drugs work. (text)
10.
Define substance abuse. (text & prior knowledge – health classes)
11.
Define psychological dependence and physical dependence, or addiction. Explain the
mechanisms of withdrawal syndrome and tolerance. (text)
12.
Define depressant. Describe the effects of alcohol and barbiturates on the nervous
system and behavior. (text & online notes)
13.
Define stimulant. Describe the effects of amphetamines, cocaine, caffeine, nicotine,
and MDMA on the nervous system and behavior. (text & online notes)
14.
Define opiates (narcotics). Describe the effects of opium morphine, codeine, and
heroin on the nervous system. (text & online notes)
15.
Define hallucinogens. Describe the effects of LSD, ketamine, and marijuana on the
nervous system and behavior. (text & online notes)
Post iRAT:
 Define circadian rhythm and explain its role in sleep patterns. Discuss jet lag and other
effects of interfering with the human body clock.
 Discuss the various theories that explain why people dream including wish-fulfillment,
activation synthesis theory, and problem-solving theory. (lecture & video)
AP Psychology
R. Letter
MEMORY UNIT LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.
Define and give an example of encoding (acoustic, semantic, and visual), storage, and
retrieval. Discuss the importance of encoding, storage, and retrieval in memory
processing.
2.
Define and give an example of episodic, semantic, and procedural memories.
3.
Define and give an example of explicit and implicit memories.
4.
Define levels-of-processing model of memory. Describe the role of rehearsal in this
memory model. Define maintenance and elaborative rehearsal.
5.
Define transfer-appropriate processing. Describe the role of encoding and retrieval
processes in this memory model.
6.
Define the parallel-distributed processing (PDP) model of memory. Describe the role
of association networks in drawing inferences and making generalizations.
7.
Define the information-processing model of memory. Name the three stages of
processing.
8.
Define sensory memory and sensory registers. Discuss the amount of information
and the length of time it stays in sensory memory.
9.
Explain why selective attention is important in determining which information is
transferred to short-term memory from sensory memory.
10.
Define short-term memory. Explain why some psychologists refer to this as working
memory. Describe short-term memory encoding.
11.
Define immediate memory span and chunking. Discuss the role of long-term
memory in the chunking process.
12.
Define long-term memory and discuss the importance of semantic encoding in longterm memory. Describe the storage capacity of LTM.
13.
Define anterograde and retrograde amnesia and discuss their relevance to the
STM/LTM difference controversy.
14.
Define retrieval cue and explain why its use can increase memory efficiency.
15.
Define context dependence and state dependence and give an example of each.
Explain the mood congruency effect.
16.
Define the tip-of-the-tongue phenomena.
17.
Define constructive memory. Describe how PDP memory models explain the
integration of semantic and episodic memories in memory construction.
18.
Describe motivated forgetting, false memories, and flashbulb memories.
19.
Define Ebbinghaus’s method of savings. Explain his discoveries and why they are
important memory research.
20.
Compare and contrast the decay and interference theories regarding forgetting
information stored in long-term memory. Define retroactive interference and
proactive interference.
21.
Discuss the use of eyewitness testimony in the courtroom.
22.
Describe the synaptic activity associated with forming new memories. Describe the
role of the hippocampus in episodic and procedural memory formation.
23.
Define mnemonics and explain why they improve memory. Give an example of the
method of loci.
24.
Explain why distributed practice is more effective than massed practice. Describe
the best method of taking notes in a lecture.
Sensation and Perception Study Guide/Objectives
Sensation Objectives:
1.
Define sensation. Be able to explain the differences between sensation and
perception. (text, introductory section & lecture)
2.
Define accessory structure, transduction, and sensory receptor. (text & class
presentations)
3.
Define adaptation and give an example. (text & class presentations)
4.
Define coding, temporal coding, and spatial coding. (text, presentations, & lecture)
5.
Describe the physical characteristics of sound, including amplitude, wavelength, and
frequency. (text & presentations)
6.
Describe the psychological characteristics of sound, including loudness and pitch.
Discuss the relationship among pitch, frequency, and wavelength as well as that
between amplitude and loudness. (text & lecture)
7.
Name and describe the accessory structures of the ear. (packet, text, &
presentations)
8.
Describe the roles of the cochlea, basilar membrane, hair cells, and auditory nerve in
the process of auditory transduction. Name and describe the types of deafness.
(text, presentations, packets, and lecture)
9.
Describe the process of coding auditory information. Discuss place theory and the
frequency-matching theory in frequency coding. (presentations & text)
10.
Define light intensity and wavelength. Describe how both are related to what you
sense. (text & presentations)
11.
Define and describe the accessory structures of the eye, including: cornea, iris, pupil,
and lens. (text, packet, & presentations – diagram on exam)
12.
Define retina and explain how accommodation affects the image on the retina. (text,
presentations, & lecture)
13.
Define photoreceptors and photopigments; describe how they are involved in
transduction. (text & lecture)
14.
Define rods, cones, and fovea. (text, presentations)
15.
Describe the path visual information follows on its way to the brain, including the
roles of the optic nerve, the optic chiasm, and the primary visual cortex. Know what
creates the blind spot. (text, packet, lecture, presentations)
16.
Describe parallel processing of visual properties and hierarchical processing of
visual information using feature detectors. (text, presentations, & lecture)
17.
Define hue and brightness. (text)
18.
Describe the trichromatic and opponent-process theories of color vision. Discuss the
phenomena each explains, including complementary colors. (text, lecture, &
presentations).
19.
Describe the physical problem that causes colorblindness. (text)
20.
Define synesthesia (sensory interaction). (text & possibly presentations)
21.
Define olfaction. Discuss the path olfactory information follows to the brain. (text &
presentations)
22.
Define gustation and papillae. Describe the relationship among taste, smell, and
flavor. (text & presentations)
23.
Define somatic sense/somatosensory system – i.e. sense of touch. Describe the
transduction process in the skin senses, including touch, temperature, and pain.
(text & presentations)
24.
Describe the gate-control theory of pain. (text & presentations)
25.
Describe the types of information the vestibular sense provides. Discuss the role of
the vestibular sacs, otoliths, and semicircular canals in the sensation of vestibular
information. (text, packet, & presentations)
26.
Define kinesthesia. (text & presentations)
Perception Objectives:
27.
Define perception. (text & lecture)
28.
Discuss the debate among the three approaches to perception. (text)
29.
Define psychophysics and absolute threshold. (lecture, class demo, & video)
30.
Describe Weber’s Law. Define difference threshold and just-noticeable difference
(JND). (text, lecture, and class demo)
31.
Describe Fechner’s Law. (text)
32.
Describe the two basic principals of perceptual organization: figure-ground and
grouping. Define and give an example of proximity, similarity, continuity, closure,
common fate, common region, and connectedness. (text & lecture)
33.
Define and describe depth perception. (text)
34.
Describe the stimulus cues that influence depth perception. Your answer should
include interposition, relative size, height in the visual field, texture gradient, and
linear perspective. (text, lecture, video)
35.
Describe the cues to depth provided by accommodation, convergence, and binocular
disparity. (text)
36.
Describe the cues used to perceive motion. Your answer should include looming and
the illusion called stroboscopic motion. (text)
37.
Define perceptual constancy. Give examples of size, shape, and brightness
constancy.
(text & video)
38.
Compare and contrast bottom-up processing and top-down-processing. (text & class
demos)
39.
Explain how feature analysis works in bottom-up processing. (text)
40.
Discuss the influences on top-down processing. Your answers should include
expectancy, motivation, and schemas. (text & video)