2002 AP Psychology Exam Free Response Questions

1. The hypothalamus of the brain contains two parts. This plays a role in our
appetite, or whether we feel hungry or satiated. Another physiological aspect
that controls our appetite is the presence of neurotransmitter and hormones. If
chemicals such as dopamine or insulin change in levels, this will also impact
appetite in a certain way. The brain also controls our appetite. The autonomic
nervous system is divided into the sympathetic nervous system and the
parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system arouses,
and triggers the fight or flight response. The parasympathetic nervous system
acts as a counterbalance and usually calms the body down from arousal. In
other words, it brings homeostasis back to the body. Cones provide color
vision. They are able to process light in different frequencies. Another process
that allows for color vision is the opponent process theory by Hering. The
consumption of drugs affects the neurotransmitters and therefore produces an
unusual effect. This also causes tolerance to the drug, which makes the body
require larger and larger doses of the drug, and when the doses stop coming,
the body goes into withdrawal. Nerves fire information by releasing ions in a
process called depolarization, and they receive information by a process called
polarization.
2. Egocentrism is when a person cannot look in the perspective of other people
and is only concerned about them. This would affect the story, as Jessie will
only tell what happened to her or anything that affects herm anything that is
seen from anybody elses point of view is left out of the story. Observational
learning is when a child looks at another person, perhaps a peer or an adult,
and then proceeds to model his/her own behavior accordingly. The story by
Jessie will include many things about what the people from the fire stations
were doing, what certain people were wearing and their jobs.
Overregularization is when grammatical or syntax is incorrectly used within
language. The sentence structure of the story told by Jessie would probably
not be developed and would have mistakes. A common grammatical mistake
made by children in the preoperational stage is the incorrect use of past tense
suffixes such as -ed or the incorrect use of superlative suffixes like -est.
Reconstructive memory when the memory is somehow changed during
retrieval. This usually adds new things introduced to the story. Perhaps Jessie
will add that she was a Dalmatian, when she really didnt because she couldnt
remember part of the story. A schema is a way in which we organize
information. Jessie thought that firefighters always had Dalmatians and
associated the dog to them, but after she was that there werent any more, she
stopped generalizing Dalmatians to the firefighters.
2003 AP Psychology Exam Free Response Questions
1.
A. There are three measures of central tendency. They are the mean, the
median, and the mode. The mean can also be described as the average. This
can be measured by adding up all the statistical data together and divide that
sum by the number of total scores. The median can be described as the middle
number. The mode is the number that occurs the most. A skewed distribution is

when the distribution of scores is asymmetrical, and the mean and median of
the data are not the same or similar. When there is normal distribution, the
mode, the mean, and the median are all the same, or that they are quite close to
each other. A positively skewed distribution occurs when the mean is the
largest number among all three measures of central tendency. In this case, the
median would be of more value than the mean. Most of the scores in the
intelligence taste are 85-115. Yes, because this number is only the mean, some
peoples scores could deviate from it.
B. Norms for standardized intelligence tests are periodically update because
according to the Flynn effect, peoples IQ scores increases by three on average
every ten years. People also gradually get better at answering IQ questions
through practice. An IQ test can be determined as biased if two randomly
selected groups of people who took the test have different scores. Please note
that it has to be a group, not individuals.
2.
A. Cognitive dissonance is when anxiety or stress is being caused by a
contradiction between two thoughts or feelings. Conformity is when an
individual changes his/her own behavior in order to match the groups
behavior. Incentive motivation is when some sort of external award or goal,
such as money, motivates a person. Negative reinforcement is when something
undesirable is taken away after some sort of behavior or action. This is
different that punishment. Physiological addiction is when the body develops a
tolerance to something, and the dosage keeps increasing in order to achieve the
same sensation. Withdrawal can be caused by physiological addiction.
B. When information does not match with smoking behavior, it will lead to the
reduction of dissonance and encourage smoking habits. A person might smoke
solely to conform to the groups norms. A good example of this is peer
pressure. Incentive motivation can encourage smoking because it might
provide some social benefits or being convinced by brand marketing
strategies. Negative reinforcement can also encourage smoking by removing
stress or withdrawal symptoms after smoking. Since the body has developed a
tolerance, it would need more and more cigarettes to have the same sensation.
If a person attempts to stop, withdrawal symptoms will show since the body is
trying to return to homeostasis.
2004 AP Psychology Exam Free Response Questions
1. Dr. Franklin utilized a survey experiment. The operational definition of
stress is the stress score from the surveys. The operational definition of
illness is the amount of absent days. Dr. Franklin gave the participants a
debriefing. The unethical part is when the athletes were forced to
participate and not given a choice. Dr. Franklin can use a scatter plot to
show the positive correlation. Dr. Franklin did not randomize the sample,
and causation of illness was not determined.
2. Children during the critical period are built to learn the language in their
environment. When someone gets older, their fluid intelligence decreases,

which is the ability to solve problems. Whenever a certain group or

internet has an opinion or view about something, for example animal
cruelty, their opinions will get more extreme the longer they exist. This is
group polarization. An example of the James-Lange theory of emotion is
when someone thinks, I am yelling, that means I am angry! When Ivan
Pavlov was experimenting on dogs, the bell as the CS came before the
food, which is the UCS. The refractory period is the time right after a
neuron fire and it needs to take time to repolarize, similar to a camera and
its flash. Sound localization is when sound reaches one ear faster, thus
allowing us to locate the direction of the sound. Spontaneous recovery is
the resurfacing of a response after a rest period. For example, if the
conditioned response became partially extinct, it might resurface again
after a period of time.