AP Psychology: Core Concepts

AP Psychology covers more ground than any other course on the list, and its multiple-choice section is largely a test of whether you can tell apart terms that sound similar. So every question here gives you a situation and asks which term the situation actually is.

A study where one group drinks coffee and the other water, and both then take a word-recall test: the dependent variable is what was measured, not what was given out, and "the type of beverage" is sitting there as the option for anyone who answers by instinct. A correlation of minus nought point eight five: strong, inverse, and not evidence of cause — which is the distinction the course returns to more often than any other. A gold star after every fifth assignment is a fixed ratio, because the reinforcement is tied to a count and not to a clock.

The rest covers extinction in classical conditioning, Broca's area identified from what a patient can and cannot do rather than from its location, the serial position effect, secure attachment recognised from both halves of the behaviour, intrinsic motivation, and conformity told apart from obedience by whether anyone actually gave an order.

The question on diagnosis is written carefully. It says the case is invented, it asks which category clinicians use rather than what the person should do, and it turns on what the fear is about — being somewhere hard to leave, rather than being judged — because that is what separates agoraphobia from social anxiety when the avoidance looks the same from outside.

Every participant and study here is invented. Nothing is reproduced from any College Board course description, sample question or released exam.

Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with the College Board, which owns the AP program, and it is not a test centre.

• Identify the dependent variable in a described study, and separate it from the manipulation
• Read a correlation coefficient for strength and direction without inferring cause
• Recognise extinction in classical conditioning and identify a reinforcement schedule from the pattern described
• Infer which brain area is involved from what a person can and cannot do
• Name the memory effect behind a described pattern of recall
• Identify secure attachment from both separation and reunion behaviour
• Tell intrinsic from extrinsic motivation, and conformity from obedience
• Match a described pattern to a diagnostic category by what the fear is about

A researcher wants to know if caffeine intake improves memory recall. She divides 40 participants into two groups: one group drinks a cup of coffee, and the other drinks water. Both groups then complete a word-recall test. What is the dependent variable in this study? — one of ten scenarios written for this set.