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AP Psychology review: key concepts

AP Psychology review cards on research methods, the brain and senses, cognition, development and learning, social psychology, personality and mental health.

43 cards6 topicsAbout 15 minutes a roundAP Psychology style course content (one-term introductory university psychology)

Independent study material written by StudyBrix. AP and SAT are trademarks of College Board and ACT is a trademark of ACT, Inc.; neither organisation is involved with or has reviewed this deck.

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About this deck

This deck is for students in an AP Psychology style course and for anyone who wants a firm grip on introductory psychology before university. It is organized around the main areas such a course covers: research methods and data, biological bases of behaviour (neurons, the brain, sleep and sensation), cognition (memory, thinking and intelligence), development and learning, social psychology and personality, and mental and physical health.

No prior psychology is needed. It helps to know what a mean and a standard deviation are, because research design and data interpretation questions are common. If statistics is new to you, start with the research methods cards.

Psychology questions usually describe a scenario and ask which concept it illustrates, so knowing a definition is not enough. For each card, invent your own everyday example, then compare it with the one given. Pair easily confused terms and quiz yourself on the difference: negative reinforcement and punishment, proactive and retroactive interference, random sampling and random assignment.

Common mistakes: calling negative reinforcement a punishment (it increases a behaviour by removing something unpleasant); treating a correlation as proof of cause; and mixing up the independent variable (what the researcher manipulates) with the dependent variable (what is measured). Students also overstate classic studies; describe what was actually found and note any ethical or sampling limits.

Before you start: None; basic familiarity with averages and graphs helps for the research methods cards.

All 43 cards

Cover the definitions with a sheet of paper and test yourself, or use the study modes above.

Research methods

Independent variable: The factor a researcher deliberately changes or assigns in an experiment to see its effect.Example: Participants get 4 or 8 hours of sleep; hours of sleep is what is manipulated.
Dependent variable: The outcome measured in an experiment to see whether it changes with the manipulated factor.Example: In the sleep study, the score on a memory test the next morning.
Random assignment: Placing participants into conditions by chance so groups are similar at the start; it supports cause and effect conclusions.Example: Flipping a coin to decide whether each volunteer gets caffeine or a placebo.
Random sampling: Choosing participants so every member of the population has an equal chance of selection; it supports generalizing results.Example: Drawing 200 names at random from a full school list, rather than surveying one class.
Confounding variable: An uncontrolled factor that varies along with the independent variable and offers an alternative explanation for the results.Example: If the caffeine group is tested in the morning and the placebo group at night, time of day is a confound.
Correlation coefficient (r): A number from -1 to +1 showing the direction and strength of a linear relationship; it does not show cause.Example: r = -0.70 between screen time and sleep hours is a strong negative relationship.
Normal curve percentages: In a normal distribution about 68% of scores fall within 1 standard deviation of the mean, 95% within 2 and 99.7% within 3.Example: IQ with mean 100 and SD 15: about 68% score between 85 and 115.
Double-blind procedure: Neither participants nor the researchers collecting data know who is in which condition, reducing placebo effects and experimenter bias.Example: Pills are coded so the staff giving them cannot tell the drug from the sugar pill.

Biological bases of behaviour

Action potential: A brief electrical impulse that travels down an axon when the neuron's charge reaches threshold; it is all or none.Example: A stronger stimulus increases how often neurons fire, not how big each impulse is.
Agonist and antagonist drugs: An agonist mimics or boosts a neurotransmitter's effect; an antagonist blocks receptors and reduces it.Example: Morphine acts like endorphins (agonist); some antipsychotics block dopamine receptors (antagonist).
Sympathetic nervous system: The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body for action: faster heart rate, dilated pupils, slowed digestion.Example: Your heart pounds before a speech; the parasympathetic division later calms you.
Prefrontal cortex: Front part of the frontal lobes involved in planning, judgment, impulse control and working memory.Example: Damage there, as in the case of Phineas Gage, can change personality and self-control.
Hippocampus: Limbic structure that helps form new explicit (declarative) memories.Example: Patient H.M., after surgery removed much of the hippocampus on both sides, could not form new long-term memories of facts and events.
Amygdala: Almond-shaped limbic structures involved in emotion, especially fear and threat detection.Example: Seeing a snake-shaped stick triggers a fast fear response before you think it through.
Neuroplasticity: The brain's ability to reorganize by forming new connections, especially after learning or injury.Example: After a stroke, therapy can help nearby areas take over lost functions.
REM sleep: Sleep stage with rapid eye movements, vivid dreams, high brain activity and relaxed, nearly paralyzed muscles.Example: REM periods get longer as the night goes on, so cutting sleep short loses a lot of it.
Weber's law: The just noticeable difference between two stimuli is a constant proportion of the original stimulus, not a constant amount.Example: If the noticeable difference for weight is 2%, you notice 1 g added to 50 g but need 20 g on 1000 g.
Sensory transduction: Conversion of physical energy from a stimulus into neural signals the brain can use.Example: Rods and cones in the retina turn light into electrical signals.

Cognition

Working memory: Short-term system that holds and manipulates a small amount of information for a few seconds; its span is limited.Example: Holding a phone number in mind while you dial it.
Serial position effect: The tendency to recall the first items (primacy) and last items (recency) of a list better than the middle.Example: After hearing 15 grocery items, you remember milk (first) and lemons (last).
Retroactive interference: New learning disrupts recall of older information.Example: Learning your new locker combination makes you forget last year's.
Proactive interference: Old learning disrupts recall of newer information.Example: You keep writing last year's date in January.
Availability heuristic: Judging how likely something is by how easily examples come to mind.Example: After news of a plane crash, people overestimate the danger of flying.
Confirmation bias: Tendency to look for and favour information that supports what you already believe.Example: Reading only reviews that agree with the phone you already chose.
Framing effect: The way an issue is worded changes decisions even when the facts are the same.Example: A surgery with a 90% survival rate sounds better than one with a 10% death rate.
Fluid versus crystallized intelligence: Fluid ability is reasoning quickly and abstractly with new problems; crystallized ability is accumulated knowledge and vocabulary.Example: Fluid ability tends to decline in later adulthood while crystallized knowledge often holds or grows.

Development and learning

Piaget's stages of cognitive development: Sensorimotor (object permanence), preoperational (symbolic play, egocentrism), concrete operational (conservation) and formal operational (abstract reasoning).Example: A 4-year-old says a tall thin glass holds more juice than a short wide one: no conservation yet.
Secure attachment: Infant pattern in which the child explores with the caregiver present, is distressed when they leave and is easily comforted on return.Example: Observed in Mary Ainsworth's strange situation procedure.
Classical conditioning: Learning in which a neutral stimulus paired with an unconditioned stimulus comes to trigger a conditioned response.Example: Pavlov's tone (neutral) paired with food (UCS) soon caused salivation on its own (CR).
Extinction and spontaneous recovery: Fading of a learned response when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the UCS, and its brief return after a rest period.Example: The dog stops salivating to the tone, then salivates weakly to it again the next day.
Negative reinforcement: Increasing a behaviour by removing an unpleasant stimulus after it happens.Example: You buckle your seatbelt to stop the car's beeping, so you buckle up sooner next time.
Variable-ratio schedule: Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses; produces high, steady responding that resists extinction.Example: Slot machines pay out after a varying number of plays.
Observational learning: Learning by watching others and the consequences of their actions, as shown in Bandura's studies.Example: Children who watched an adult hit a Bobo doll were more likely to hit it themselves.

Social psychology and personality

Fundamental attribution error: Overestimating personal traits and underestimating the situation when explaining other people's behaviour.Example: Assuming a driver who cut you off is rude, not that they are rushing to a hospital.
Cognitive dissonance: Discomfort felt when beliefs and actions conflict, which people often reduce by changing their beliefs.Example: After paying a lot for a course, a student decides it must be excellent.
Conformity: Adjusting behaviour or judgments to match a group, as in Asch's line judgment studies.Example: Many participants gave an obviously wrong answer after several confederates gave it first.
Obedience to authority: Following direct orders from an authority figure, studied by Stanley Milgram.Example: Many participants continued to give what they believed were dangerous shocks when instructed.
Bystander effect: The more people present, the less likely any one person is to help, partly from diffusion of responsibility.Example: A person who collapses on a crowded platform may get help more slowly than on a quiet street.
Big Five personality traits: Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (emotional stability), each measured on a continuum.Example: A highly conscientious student plans ahead and meets deadlines reliably.

Mental and physical health

General adaptation syndrome: Selye's three-phase stress response: alarm, resistance and exhaustion.Example: Long-term stress without recovery can wear down the immune system in the exhaustion phase.
Major depressive disorder: Mood disorder with at least two weeks of depressed mood or loss of interest, plus symptoms such as sleep, appetite or energy changes.Example: Not the same as a short low mood after a disappointment.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT): Treatment that helps people identify and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviours, often with practice between sessions.Example: A person with social anxiety tests a fearful prediction by joining a short group conversation.
Biopsychosocial model: Explaining health and disorders through the interaction of biological, psychological and social-cultural factors.Example: Depression may involve genetic risk, negative thinking patterns and social isolation together.