AP Psychology Exam Prep FREE Sample Exam — Fixed Set

A researcher tests whether background music helps or hurts proofreading. Every participant proofreads one passage in silence first and then a second passage with music. Scores with music are higher, but participants may simply have warmed up. Which change would best address this order problem?

A school tests a new homework app in one classroom. During the study the same classroom also gets a new teacher, and grades rise. The most serious threat to concluding the app caused the improvement is a threat to

Researchers find that adolescents who report more loneliness also report more social-media use. A classmate concludes loneliness causes heavier use. The design cannot rule out the reverse pathway, which illustrates the

Five teammates report weekly practice hours of 2, 3, 3, 4, and 28. A coach wants the value that best represents a typical teammate. Which summary is most appropriate, and what is it?

A neuron at rest is stimulated and its membrane suddenly becomes much less negative inside as sodium ions rush in through opened channels. This rapid change that launches the impulse is called

Immediately after firing, a neuron briefly cannot fire again no matter how strong the stimulation, and then can fire only in response to stronger-than-usual stimulation. The first part of this recovery window is the

An axon wrapped in myelin conducts impulses far faster than a bare axon of the same diameter, largely because the electrical signal effectively jumps between the exposed gaps in the insulation. Those gaps are the

A researcher needs to know the exact millisecond at which the brain first responds differently to an unexpected tone, even though pinpointing the precise patch of cortex responsible is less important. Which method best fits this need?

A researcher briefly disrupts activity in a small cortical area with magnetic pulses while volunteers perform a visual task, and their accuracy drops only during the disruption. This design is stronger than a brain scan alone because it can support a conclusion about:

After a head injury, a physician mainly needs a detailed picture of the brain’s anatomy to locate a possible bleed, and does not need to measure moment-to-moment activity. The most appropriate tool is:

A team wants to scan the same volunteers many times over several weeks to watch activity change as they learn a skill, and wants to avoid repeated exposure to a radioactive tracer. Which method should they choose?

Two travelers cross six time zones, one flying east and one flying west. The eastward traveler typically has the harder adjustment mainly because it is harder for the circadian system to: