Are you having trouble finding multiple-choice questions for the new AP Psychology exam? Look no further for questions from Unit 2! This unit covers cognition.
I've created MCQ questions to use when working with my private clients. I'm posting them here so they can help more students!
Table of Contents
A Note On This Resource
This post is part of a series of posts containing practice questions for the AP Psychology exam. They reflect the content and style of the 2024-2025 revision of the AP Psychology exam.
I want to be transparent about the limitations of my own questions. I have not tested these questions as much as I would like. I did not expect to posting them, and there is little time before the exam. Like Washington, I am unconscious of intentional error. I am too conscious of my faults to think that these questions are error-free. I hope that you will view them with indulgence.
I welcome feedback, corrections, and questions.
I would also like to make it clear that I fabricated all all names, research studies, data, and statistics. I would like to use real science like the exam! Yet, real science is often paywalled and copyrighted. This creates significant barriers to creating questions with authentic research. I have written each example to reflect with currently accepted principles in psychology. I hope that this is will avoid causing confusion and misinformation.
Okay, without further ado:
Unit 2: Cognition MCQs
4. Ruth goes to the hospital. She is told that a nurse named Alex will see her shortly. Ruth is surprised when she finds out that Alex is a man. Ruth assumed that her nurse would be a woman because all of her previous nurses were women. Which of the following concepts applies most directly to Ruth's experience?
a. Egocentrism
b. Functional fixedness
c. Sunk-cost fallacy
d. Representativeness heuristic
5. Laura needs to get a pillow off of a shelf that she cannot reach. She fails to realize she could use a broom to knock the pillow off the shelf. Which of the following concepts most directly applies to Laura's experience?
a. Availability bias
b. Trial and error
c. Functional fixedness
d. Confirmation bias
6. Jenny is an excellent violinist. She decides to learn to play the cello. She has a difficult time memorizing the names of the new strings because she keeps confusing them with the names of the strings on the violin. Which of the following concepts relates most directly to Jenny's experience?
a. Proactive interference
b. Functional fixedness
c. Repression
d. Imagination inflation
| Number of Puzzles Completed (March) | Number of Puzzles Completed (October) | |
| Participant 1 | 10 | 11 |
| Participant 2 | 9 | 9 |
| Participant 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Participant 4 | 15 | 14 |
12. Which of the following psychometric principles can Dr. Kim assess because each participant completed the test twice?
a. Objectivity
b. Reliability
c. Standardization
d. Validity
13. Dr. Kim has each participant take the exam a third time. This time, she asks each participant to fill out a questionnaire before completing the puzzles. This questionnaire asks for demographic information, including gender and age. Dr. Kim finds that the scores on the third exam are significantly higher for some participants. Which phenomenon most likely influenced Dr. Kim's results on the third exam?
a. Flynn effect
b. Construct validity
c. Individual IQ scores
d. Stereotype lift
14. Jennifer was hospitalized after a car accident. Jennifer can't remember anything that happened after the accident. Which of the following concepts most directly applies to Jennifer's experience?
a. Encoding failure
b. Anteretrograde amnesia
c. Proactive interference
d. Imagination inflation
15. A doctor is assessing a patient with a memory disorder. In the first assessment, he shows the patient how to fold an origami box. He then asks the patient to fold their own box. Which of the following types of memory is the doctor most likely evaluating?
a. Episodic memory
b. Semantic memory
c. Flashbulb memory
d. Procedural memory
16. Leonard unexpectedly wins a blue ribbon at the county fair. Leonard proudly shows off his ribbon to his friends at school the next day. He tells his friends everything that happened on that day. Which of the following types of memory helped Leonard share his story?
a. Flashbulb memory
b. Implicit memory
c. Prospective memory
d. Episodic memory
17. Carlos is a native Spanish speaker. He starts taking a French class. He does well in the class. However, he finds that he forgets some Spanish words. When this happens, he can remember the French word for the same concept. Which of the following phenomenon is Carlos experiencing?
a. Infantile amnesia
b. Alzheimer's disease
c. Retroactive interference
d. Retrograde amnesia
18. Igor is on vacation near the ocean. He is looking forward to surfing in the ocean. He watches a news story about surfers being attacked by sharks. The next day, he decides that he doesn't want to go surfing. Which of the following concepts most likely influenced his decision-making process?
a. Algorithms, because he followed a specific series of steps.
b. Heuristics, because his decision was based on the most recent information about shark attacks.
c. Schemas, because he understands several facts about sharks.
d. Mental sets, because he has surfed without being attacked by a shark in the past.
19. A doctor is assessing a child who has a memory disorder. The doctor gives the child a list of five words. They say each word and it's definition several times together. The doctor asks the child to put away the list of words. The doctor says one of the words and asks the child to explain the definition. Which of the following types of memory is the doctor most likely evaluating?
a. Procedural memory
b. Flashbulb memory
c. Episodic memory
d. Semantic memory
The Answer Key
1. B
2. C
3. B
4. D
5. C
6. A
7. D
8. A
9. A
10. A
11. B
12. B
13. D
14. B
15. D
16. D
17. C
18. B
19. D
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