AP Psych Unit 2 Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. While solving a problem, Maya keeps several numbers in mind and mentally rearranges them to calculate an answer. Which memory system is she using most directly?
Sensory memory
Episodic memory
Working memory
Procedural memory
2. Jordan recently changed an account password but repeatedly types the old password by mistake. Which process best explains the problem?
Proactive interference
The misinformation effect
Anterograde amnesia
Retroactive interference
3. A young child says, “Want juice,” using essential content words while leaving out smaller connecting words. This is an example of what?
Babbling
Overgeneralization
Telegraphic speech
Receptive language
4. A student chews peppermint gum while studying vocabulary. At the test, the same flavor helps bring the studied words to mind. Which principle best explains this effect?
Maintenance rehearsal
Encoding specificity
Retroactive interference
Implicit learning
5. A child decides whether an unfamiliar animal is a bird by comparing it with a mental image of a typical robin. Which concept is guiding the judgment?
A fixation
A phoneme
An algorithm
A prototype
6. After forming an opinion about a new teaching method, a researcher seeks supportive reports and dismisses critical studies without examining their methods. Which bias is most apparent?
Confirmation bias
The availability heuristic
The representativeness heuristic
The framing effect
7. A new aptitude test produces nearly identical scores when the same students take it twice, but the scores do not predict later course performance. Which conclusion is best supported?
The test has high reliability but low predictive validity
The test has neither reliability nor validity
The test has high validity but low reliability
The test has strong standardization because its scores remain stable
8. After watching a video of a minor collision, witnesses asked how fast the cars were going when they “smashed” later remember more severe damage than witnesses who heard the word “contacted.” Which concept does this illustrate?
Mood-congruent memory
The misinformation effect
Procedural memory
The spacing effect
9. Nora accurately recalls a surprising science fact but incorrectly believes she learned it from her professor rather than from a podcast. What error has occurred?
Retrograde amnesia
Belief perseverance
Functional fixedness
Source amnesia
10. Researchers report that a trait has a heritability estimate of 60% in a particular population and environment. What does this mean?
About 60% of the observed variation in that population is associated with genetic differences
Environmental changes can alter only 40% of the trait
Sixty percent of people in the population inherited the trait
Genes determine 60% of the trait in every individual
11. After hearing a long list of words, participants immediately recall many words from both the beginning and end. After a 30-second distraction, recall of the final words drops sharply while recall of the first words remains stronger. What changed?
The primacy effect disappeared because long-term storage was interrupted
The entire serial position effect disappeared because rehearsal continued
The recency effect weakened because the final words left working memory
The final words became inaccessible because of proactive interference from earlier lists
12. Which study plan best demonstrates the spacing effect?
Studying for three uninterrupted hours the night before the test
Studying for 30 minutes on each of six evenings
Rereading the same chapter twice in one sitting
Highlighting all key terms immediately after first reading them
13. A computer program checks every possible arrangement of letters until it finds the correct solution to a word puzzle. Which problem-solving strategy is it using?
A heuristic
An algorithm
Insight
Confirmation bias
14. Lee needs to tighten a loose screw but fails to consider using the edge of a coin because coins are normally used as money. Which obstacle is most evident?
The availability heuristic
Belief perseverance
The representativeness heuristic
Functional fixedness
15. The difference between the spoken sounds at the beginning of “bat” and “pat” changes the words’ meanings. These smallest distinctive sound units are called what?
Syntax
Morphemes
Phonemes
Semantics
16. After reading a chapter, Elena closes the book and writes down everything she can remember before checking her notes. Which learning principle is she applying?
State-dependent memory
The serial position effect
Shallow processing
The testing effect