AP Psychology: Descriptive Feedback & Mark Scheme Rubric
Real Name: _________ _______________________________ Nickname: ____Scott _____________________________
Essay #4
Savannah is a junior in high school and is preparing for an exam in her beginning Japanese course. The exam will consist of both written and
spoken portions. Although it is her first course in Japanese, Savannah is confident that she will do very well on the exam.
A) Describe how each of the following relates to Savannah’s successful learning and performance.
• Broca’s area
• Use of phonemes
• Modeling
• Chunking
B) Describe how each of the following may hinder Savannah as she prepares for and takes the exam.
• Encoding failure
• Age and language acquisition
C) After the exam, Savannah tells her family and friends that she believes that she spoke fluently and did extremely well on the exam.
Describe how each of the following concepts may have influenced her opinion.
• Self-efficacy
• Confirmation bias
Terms
Broca’s area
A) Knowledge &
Comprehension
 Detailed accurate
knowledge
 Reflects a clear
analysis of the
psychological
concept or principle
 10 pts total
You demonstrate some
knowledge of Broca’s
area, but you omit that
it is responsible for
productive language
which is much more
American International School
B) Application
 A logical and
reasonable use of the
psychological
concept or principle
 10 pts total
C) Organization
 Academic definition
(5 pts)
 Well organized
 Focused on question
 10 pts total
She may have a more
developed Broca’s area
and therefore have an
easier time in writing
and speaking. Or, she
may have worked
Starting with a strong
academic definition is
the most beneficial
thing you can do. You
do not include a
category – cortical
D) Total Points

A) __9.1___

B) __8.1___

C) __8.1___

D) __8.4___

A) __9.0___

B) __8.0___

C) __7.5___

D) __8.2___
Page 1 of 6
AP Psychology: Descriptive Feedback & Mark Scheme Rubric
than pronunciation.
Use of phonemes
Modeling
particularly hard at
acquiring the
knowledge & skills
necessary to be
successful.
region – and your
specifier omits the
function of Broca’s area
– productive language.
Also, the question
states “successful
learning and
performance.” You do
not address learning.
You demonstrate a
substantial knowledge
in phonemes and their
role in language
acquisition. I like the
way you include first
language acquisition in
your answer – see the
next column for
objections. While
learners of languages
who are beyond the
optimal age may not be
able to speak a language
without an accent, they
can still learn the
language and perform
adequately.
I find your assumption
that Savannah had
prior exposure to
Japanese troubling
based solely on her
confidence. I find your
assumption that
Savannah had prior
exposure to Japanese
troubling based solely
on her confidence. Her
confidence may be
based on prior
performance or on pure
hubris. We don’t know.
The application here is
on acquiring a
reasonable facisimile of
the phonemes of
Japanese.
Again, your academic
definition is lacking
and may have helped
you had you written a
straightforward
definition. It helps
streamline and focus
your response: “the
smallest unit of sound
that occur in a
language. Therefore,
phonemes that….” By
following this pattern
you remain focused on
the question,
demonstrate
knowledge, and apply it
to the situation in a
very efficient manner.
You demonstrate
knowledge of what
modeling is. However,
you don’t go far enough
Your application of the
principle to the
situation is scant:
definitely helpful in
I assume that you
found a source for the
definition of modeling,
perhaps even our
American International School

A) __9.5__

B) __7.5__

C) __8.0__

D) __8.3__

A) __8.5__

B) __8.5__
Page 2 of 6
AP Psychology: Descriptive Feedback & Mark Scheme Rubric
to address the how
external stimuli is
represented internally.
Of course, we did not
cover this in the course,
but you should be able
to link this to visual,
motor, and auditory
cortices, procedural
memory, and
associative learning to
score the most points.
You allude to
associative learning and
procedural memory.
Chunking
You demonstrate
knowledge of chunking.
You omit the 7 +/- 2
rule, for example.
American International School
language acquisition,
needs to successfully
apporximate the
calligraphy and
pronunciation. A little
more detail is been
needed. Again, we did
not covering modeling
in the class, so you’ve
done your best and
scored points.
textbook and your
definition is complete.
In addition, you
address learning
although not explicitly
– continued practice.
However, you do not
address performance
very directly and thus
cannot score points in
this regard.
Your application lacks
significantly. By
grouping information
into chunks, it must
retain meaning and
occupy one “slot” in
working memory. The
number 23 occupies
one slot, but can be
used to retain the 2 and
the 3 of a number
string. Organizing desk
top items into a group
does not reduce them
to a chunk; it associates
them together. That is
more of a long-term
encoding strategy, or
You make good use of
your academic
definition. You should
focus on learning and
performance, though.
How would chunking
help her learn and then
perform on the test?

C) __8.5__

D) __8.5__

A) __9.0__

B) __7.0__

C) __7.0__

D) __7.7__
Page 3 of 6
AP Psychology: Descriptive Feedback & Mark Scheme Rubric
mnemonic device than
chunking. Chunking
would be learning a
phrase as a whole unit,
or sound combinations
as a unit.
Encoding failure
Age and language
acquisition
Self-efficacy
You have a good
academic definition. It
clearly identifies the
important aspects of
encoding failure. Also,
you demonstrate how
they may hinder her in
preparing for the exam.
You could have
discussed interference
as a failure of encoding
that would affect her
performance.
Perhaps your strongest
answer so far. You
demonstrate accurate
technical knowledge
through the academic
definition and give two
worthy examples. It is
clear that you
understand the
connection between
encoding failure and
memory failure.
You apply the principle
through exam
preparation and offer
examples of ways of
avoiding encoding
failure – distributive
learning and review –
and making encoding
more likely –
cramming.
You demonstrate some
knowledge of how age
interferes with language
acquisition. A clearer
answer would have
utilized Chomsky’s LAD
and how older learners
must use more cognitive
methods to acquire
langauge.
The question asks you
In the application
to address how the
portion, I expected the principle would hinder
answer to focus on
her preparation for and
pronunciation and
taking of the exam. You
vocabulary acquisition. must explicitly focus on
You addressed the ways these two aspects of the
that age hinders
question. You cannot
pronunciation but not
leave it to the marker to
vocabulary acquisition. find ways to give you
points here.
Even though we did not
discuss self-efficacy in
You apply the concept
well. It is akin to self-
American International School
Your definition is okay.
It does miss the

A) __9.5___

B) __8.5___

C) __8.0___

D) __8.7___

A) __9.0___

B) __8.5___

C) __8.0__

D) __8.5__

A) __9.0___
Page 4 of 6
AP Psychology: Descriptive Feedback & Mark Scheme Rubric
class, you have a good
understanding of it. You
may have included that
is a concept originated
by Bandura.
You have a good
understanding of
confirmation bias. I
Confirmation bias would think so since we
discussed it so often in
class.
American International School
confidence. It is a
belief, though. A belief
that a problem can be
effectively addressed.
So, how did her belief
that she could handle
the problems presented
on the test affect her
interpretation of her
actual performance?
You apply the concept
well to the situation.
You also link it to selfefficacy and show how
the two interact to
“reinforce” each other.
category which would

have been an easy place

to bring up Bandura
and score points there. 
You effectively connect
the two concepts and
discuss them in a way
that remains focused on
the question.
B) __9.0___

A) __9.5___

B) __9.5___

C) __10.0__

D) __9.7__
Your definition is good.
And you remain
focused on the
question.
C) __9.5__
D) __9.2__
Page 5 of 6
AP Psychology: Descriptive Feedback & Mark Scheme Rubric
American International School
Page 6 of 6