AP Psychology & Human Behavior Flashcards
7 cards from real AP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 AP Psychology & Human Behavior flashcards as text
In classical conditioning, what term describes the previously neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to elicit a response on its own?
Answer: Conditioned stimulus (CS)
The conditioned stimulus begins as neutral but acquires the ability to trigger a response after being repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning holds that behaviors are strengthened or weakened primarily by:
Answer: Consequences such as reinforcement and punishment
Operant conditioning shows that behaviors followed by rewarding consequences increase in frequency, while those followed by punishment decrease.
The serial position effect in memory shows that recall is best for items presented:
Answer: At the beginning and at the end of a list
The primacy effect (first items enter long-term memory) and recency effect (last items remain in working memory) together produce superior recall for both ends of a list.
Stanley Milgram's obedience studies found that, when ordered by an authority figure, approximately what proportion of participants administered what they believed to be the maximum dangerous shock?
Answer: About 2 in 3 participants (65%)
Milgram found that about 65% of participants followed orders to deliver the maximum shock, revealing a powerful tendency to obey legitimate authority.
Cognitive dissonance, as described by Leon Festinger, is the discomfort experienced when:
Answer: A person holds contradictory beliefs or acts against their own attitudes
Cognitive dissonance occurs when attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent, motivating people to reduce the conflict by changing a belief or rationalizing the behavior.
The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to:
Answer: Overestimate personal traits and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior
The fundamental attribution error describes how observers tend to blame others' behavior on character or disposition while ignoring powerful situational influences.
Which schedule of reinforcement produces the highest, most steady rate of responding and is the most resistant to extinction?
Answer: Variable-ratio schedule
Variable-ratio schedules reinforce behavior after an unpredictable number of responses, creating persistent behavior because the next reward could always be just one response away.