AP PSYCHOLOGY Scoring Guide

AP Psychology Unit 6 Exam (Memory and Cognition)

1. Achariya is lost. She quickly scans the crowd and decides to ask an elderly woman for directions because she
believes the woman will be kind. Which method of problem solving did Achariya most likely use?
(A) An algorithm
(B) The availability heuristic
(C) The representativeness heuristic
(D) Divergent thinking

Answer C

Correct. The elderly woman most closely resembles Achariya’s schema for a kind person.

Melissa is a math teacher who teaches her students to solve certain types of problems by applying a formula in a
systematic, step-by-step process. If a student skips steps in the process, they are more likely to solve the problem
incorrectly.

2. Which of the following strategies best reflects Melissa’s approach?

(A) Priming
(B) An algorithm
(C) The spacing effect
(D) The availability heuristic

Answer B

Correct. Algorithms are step-by-step strategies (formulas) that help the students arrive at correct
solutions when followed.

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3. A researcher shows the same video of an automobile accident to two different groups of participants.

Participants in group one are asked: “Did you see a broken headlight?”

Participants in group two are asked: “Did you see the broken headlight?”

The researcher finds that participants in group two are much more likely to recall having seen a broken headlight,
even though there actually was no broken headlight in the video. The researcher is investigating the effects of which
of the following on recall?
(A) Heuristics
(B) framing
(C) Proactive interference
(D) The primacy effect

4. Darnayia has been seeing a lot of social media ads about an exciting new sports simulation game. While several of
her friends say that the game is their ideal example of a video game, others who have played the game complain that
it was too expensive and not as fun as they expected. Darnayia buys the game. When her mother asks her why she
chose that game, Darnayia only mentions the advice she heard about the game was the best one they’ve ever played.
Which of the following cognitive processes explains why Darnayia can justify her purchase of the expensive game
and ignore her concerns over the cost?
(A) Mental set
(B) Schemas
(C) Priming
(D) Confirmation bias

Answer D

Correct. Confirmation bias occurs when we look for evidence to confirm our pre-existing expectation
and seek out evidence to reassure us in our choices or decisions. Damayia only paid attention to the
information that confirmed her belief that she should get the game.

5. Denny does not have wrapping paper to use to wrap a birthday present, and so he decides to use colorful newspaper
comics instead. Denny’s solution demonstrates that he has overcome

(A) functional fixedness

(B) the fundamental attribution error
(C) cognitive dissonance
(D) egocentrism

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Kiara is a skilled interior designer who can visualize multiple design options for a given room. She can present her clients
with different versions of what the space could look like and is highly regarded for her creativity and expertise. Her clients
almost always choose one of her designs.

6. Which of the following concepts best explains why Kiara has such a talent for generating multiple potential
solutions for her clients?
(A) Availability heuristic
(B) Divergent thinking
(C) Functional fixedness
(D) Convergent thinking

Answer B

Correct. In divergent thinking, there are a number of potential solutions proposed. Kiara is able to
provide her clients with multiple potential designs.

7. After visiting her professor’s office, Rachel writes down everything she remembers seeing there. She correctly
remembers many details, but she falsely remembers seeing books even though there were no books in the office.
Additionally, she did not remember seeing a skull that was in the office. Which memory concept best explains why
Rachel falsely encoded the books and failed to encode the skull?
(A) Schemas
(B) Association networks
(C) Sensory memory
(D) Context effects

Answer A

Correct. Rachel was likely relying on her office schema. Most offices do contain books and do not
contain skulls. Her schema biased what information was encoded into memory.

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Cognitive psychologist Dr. Leary designed a study to investigate perception. They asked the participants in Group 1 to
read a story about a rabbit and a turtle. Participants in Group 2 did not read the story.

Next, participants looked at a series of ambiguous drawings and identified what they saw. Their observations were
recorded and categorized. The results are depicted in the graph.

Participant Observations by Group

8. Which of the following concepts best applies to the results of Group 1?

(A) Self-fulfilling prophecy
(B) Belief perseverance
(C) Priming
(D) Inattentional blindness

Answer C

Correct. Group 1 participants were predisposed to interpret ambiguous figures as animals, rather than
other types of images, after reading a story about animals.

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Researchers randomly selected 300 adults whom they interviewed about their perception of crime rates from 2002 to
2016. These perceived crime rates were then compared to actual crime rates, and the results of this comparison over that
period are depicted in the graph.

Changes in Actual Crime Versus Perceived Crime

9. Because violent crimes often become the lead story in news headlines, which of the following psychological
concepts best explains why participants may have overestimated the crime rate for each year from 2002 to 2016?
(A) Algorithm
(B) Accommodation
(C) Availability heuristic
(D) Prototype

Answer C

Correct. An availability heuristic occurs when people overestimate an event because it is easy to recall or
is the first thing that “pops into their mind.” In this case, participants were likely influenced by news
broadcasts featuring crime stories, as it becomes easy to assume these crimes happen more often than
they do.

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10. Chuck recalls the day last summer when he fell off his bicycle and scraped his knee. This is an example of
(A) iconic memory
(B) procedural memory
(C) semantic memory
(D) episodic memory

11. According to the levels of processing model, in which scenario would the person have the most accurate recall of
new information due to deep processing?
(A) Natalie, who repeats the information to herself over and over
(B) Janelle, who relates the information to her own experiences
(C) Joy, who reviews the information in the same order every time
(D) Elizabeth, who writes down all the relevant information in her notebook

Answer B

Correct. By relating information to her own experiences, Janelle is using the deepest level of encoding
called semantic processing. Because she is making personal connections, she will have better recall of
the information.

12. Dr. Roberts conducts a study in which one group of participants counts the number of syllables in each member of a
list of twenty words, and the second group creates stories from the same set of words. When later asked to write
down as many of the previously seen words as possible, the second group of participants recalls more words than
the first group. This study shows the importance of
(A) semantic encoding
(B) maintenance rehearsal
(C) convergent thinking
(D) shallow processing

Answer A

Correct. This example shows how memory can be improved when the meaning of words is considered.

13. A sudden inability to remember how to tie a certain kind of knot indicates a deficit in which kind of memory?

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(A) Declarative
(B) Semantic
(C) Episodic
(D) Procedural

Diedre took a yearlong psychology course in which brain structures were discussed in multiple units. At first, she had a
hard time remembering the various functions of each brain structure. After learning about them and reviewing them in
several different contexts, she can quickly and easily retrieve the function of each brain structure even months later.

14. Which of the following concepts most likely accounts for this change in memory?
(A) Implicit priming of memory
(B) Long-term potentiation
(C) Recency effect
(D) State-dependent memory

Answer B

Correct. Diedre can remember due to the creation of smoother, more efficient neural pathways through
frequent activation.

Cesar is participating in a memory competition. He must memorize a long, novel string of numbers in 60 seconds, then try
to recall them immediately without missing or misplacing any numbers.

15. Which strategy should Cesar use?

(A) Fixed mindset
(B) Chunking
(C) Spacing
(D) Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Answer B

Correct. The numbers in the list could be combined into meaningful sections and recalled in those
groups.

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16. To remember a list of words, Jerry tries walking through his bedroom and making associations between words on
the list and various areas he visits in his bedroom. Jerry is trying to improve his memory encoding by using which
of the following memory concepts?
(A) distributed learning
(B) the method of loci
(C) maintenance retrieval
(D) echoic memory

Answer B

Correct. This is an example of using the method of loci to remember something.

17. Jalil goes to a party where he meets several new people. When he tells his brother about it the next day, he can only
remember the names of the last 3 people that he met. Which of the following memory concepts best describes Jalil's
memory for the names of the people at the party?
(A) Primacy effect
(B) Recency effect
(C) Spacing effect
(D) Law of effect

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A memory researcher conducted a study to determine whether words are easier or harder to recall based on when they are
presented in a sequence of words. She read a list of words to participants for 60 seconds at a constant rate. Each word was
read once, and no words were repeated. The participants were tested on their recall of the words. The results are given in
the graph.

Number of Words Recalled as a Function of When Read

18. Which of the following concepts is consistent with these findings?

(A) Proactive interference
(B) Retrograde amnesia
(C) Serial position effect
(D) Forgetting curve

Answer C

Correct. Recall is better for the first items and last items in the sequence than for items in the middle of
the sequence.

19. The brain scans of people with amnesia are most likely to show damage to the

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(A) hippocampus
(B) hypothalamus
(C) medulla
(D) cerebellum

20. After having a stroke resulting from a blockage of blood to the medial temporal lobe, Gerald could not remember
new information, such as the books he had just read, new songs he had just heard, or the faces of new people he had
just met. Gerald was experiencing
(A) dissociative fugue
(B) dissociative amnesia
(C) retrograde amnesia
(D) anterograde amnesia

21. David was studying some important historical dates for a test. He noticed that the day and month of one of the dates
was the same as his own birthday, and he tried to use that fact to help him remember the date for his test. What is
David using to enhance his memory?
(A) Method of loci
(B) Self-reference
(C) Retroactive interference
(D) The recency effect

Answer B

Correct. This refers to the fact that information that is personally relevant is more easily remembered
than personally irrelevant information.

22. Which of the following scenarios best demonstrates the role of context effects in memory?
Jonah tutored his classmate on a difficult concept, and now he understands the concept better than he did
(A)
before tutoring his classmate.
Amy studied for a vocabulary test in the same classroom and at the same time of day as the normal
(B) class, and she performed better on the test than students who studied in different classrooms under
different conditions.
Mateo studied for an anatomy exam while taking pain medication, which he did not take before the
(C)
exam. He forgot many of the concepts that he learned when he was studying.
Dina could not remember the name of her second-grade teacher, but after she thought about the names
(D)
of her classmates, the teacher’s name suddenly came to her.

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Answer B

Correct. On average, due to context effects, memory is best when the conditions at recall are as close as
possible to the conditions at encoding.

23. Corey has a list of things he needs from the grocery store but forgets his list at home. At the store, Corey struggles
to remember the items on his list, but when he sees a display of oranges, he remembers that oranges were on his list.
This is an example of
(A) recall
(B) recognition
(C) working memory
(D) sensory memory

Answer B

Correct. Corey matched visual information with a mental representation to remember the oranges on the
list.

24.

In an experiment, either a sad video or a happy video was shown to participants to influence their moods. The
participants were then asked to memorize a list of words. Later, the participants were again shown either the same
video they had seen before memorizing the words or they were shown the other video, and they were then asked to
recall the words they had memorized previously. The results of the experiment, summarized in the chart above, best
illustrate which psychological concept?

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(A) Episodic memory

(B) State-dependent memory
(C) Latent learning
(D) Observational learning

25. Dr. Rudolph’s class has a big test coming up next week. Which of the following students is using a studying
strategy that is most likely to lead to memory consolidation?
(A) Marcus does not study until the night before the test, when he studies for eight hours straight.
(B) Elizabeth studies for a half hour before she goes to bed each night the week before the exam.
Sharon does not study for the test, but she pays close attention, asks lots of questions, and takes good
(C)
notes during class.
(D) Mario studies by repeating his class notes to himself multiple times.

Answer B

Correct. Material is more likely to be consolidated if it is repeated multiple times. Additionally, spacing
learning over time leads to better memory consolidation.

26.

The graph is an illustration of which of the following?

(A) The testing effect
(B) Metacognition
(C) Interleaved practice
(D) Weber’s law

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Answer A

Correct. The testing effect indicates that if participants test themselves on the material after initially
studying it, they will retain more information in the long term than if they had simply studied the
material again.

27. A teacher has to learn 170 new student names every year and finds it difficult to remember the names of former
students. The teacher’s memory problem most likely results from
(A) proactive interference
(B) retroactive interference
(C) retroactive amnesia
(D) anterograde amnesia

Answer B

Correct. Retroactive interference occurs when new information impedes the ability to remember old
information.

28. People who have difficulty remembering recently learned materials because of similar information learned earlier in
life are demonstrating the phenomenon of
(A) cue-dependent forgetting
(B) repression
(C) retroactive interference
(D) proactive interference

29. A researcher tested his memory using combinations of three-letter nonsense syllables. Which of the following
graphs best represents his findings about the relationship between forgetting and time?

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(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

30. Joe’s best friend Liz says, “I heard the best joke from my sister” and then proceeds to tell Joe the joke that he had
told her last week. Liz is most likely experiencing
(A) retrieval failure
(B) retrograde amnesia
(C) encoding failure
(D) source amnesia

Answer D

Correct. Source amnesia occurs when a person forgets where they heard/learned information, such as the
joke in this question.

31. After Doug witnessed two cars involved in a car accident, a police officer asked Doug how fast the cars were going
when the accident happened. According to research by Elizabeth Loftus, which of the following questions could the
officer ask that would make Doug most susceptible to the misinformation effect?
(A) How fast were the cars going when the accident occurred?
(B) How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?
(C) What can you tell me about what you saw?
(D) Were there other people around who witnessed the accident?

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Answer B

Correct. The phrase “smashed into” evokes the most severe crash. This would be most likely to affect
Doug's memory through the misinformation effect, which distorts people's memories of events and biases
their responses.

32. Which of the following is an example of the tip-of-the-tongue effect?

Marcus used to use words he knew were bad because his parents would pay attention to him whenever
he did. When his parents learned to stop giving him attention in response to the bad words, he stopped
(A)
using them for a few months. A few months later, though, he suddenly started using the bad words
again.
Emma is telling her friend what she did over summer vacation when she discovers she cannot think of a
(B) specific word that she would like to say. She stops telling the story, because she has the distinct feeling
that she is about to be able to think of the word if she waits just a moment.
After listening to a long list of words, Peter remembers the words that occurred near the end of the list
(C)
more than the ones he heard earlier in the list.
When watching a video of a mouth saying the word “bag” while the word “gag” is played over speakers,
(D)
Charlotte hears a word that sounds somewhere between the two words.

Answer B

Correct. The tip-of-the-tongue effect is the inability to think of a particular word, paired with the strong
belief that retrieval of the word will imminently occur.

33. A test author most interested in ensuring that individuals receive similar scores on a personality test every time they
take it is attempting to increase which of the following?
(A) Validity
(B) Reliability
(C) Experimenter-expectancy effects
(D) Standardization

Answer B

Correct. Reliability refers to the consistency or stability of an assessment.

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34. Most intelligence tests are normed such that the mean score is 100 and the standard deviation is 15. Therefore, the
discovery of the Flynn effect leads one to conclude that
(A) IQ tests should be renormed at periodic intervals
(B) the tests may not have been valid when they were initially constructed
(C) the relatively high reliability coefficients for IQ tests may not be accurate
(D) IQ scores tend not to change over the course of a person’s life

Answer A

Correct. The Flynn effect is the gradual rise in IQ scores across generations. Since the average IQ score
is meant to be 100, a rise in the IQ score of a population would mean that the scores should be renormed
so the mean remains 100.

35. Ms. Reagan, who is a teacher, agrees more with theories of multiple intelligences than theories about g. Which of
the following scenarios would she most agree with?
Ms. Reagan's student Shuri is excellent at math, so she concludes that Shuri must also have high verbal
(A)
ability.
Ms. Reagan thinks that her students exhibit more than one type of intelligence. For example, she notices
(B)
her student Noel plays well with others as well as alone.
(C) Ms. Reagan thinks that her students exhibit special types of intelligence.
Ms. Reagan observes that her student Lenny demonstrates his ability in all subject areas, so she
(D)
concludes that Lenny must be the most intelligent person in her class.

Answer B

Correct. Theory of multiple intelligences originally involved seven types of intelligence (musical, spatial,
verbal, mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal), while theories of general
intelligence talked about g or general intelligence.

36. Research on stereotype threat indicates that students might not do as well as they can on a test if

(A) they are informed that people of their ethnicity, age, or gender usually do not perform well on the tests
(B) they are forced to take a test that is known to have low test-retest reliability
(C) other students perceive them to be of a minority ethnic group
(D) the test does not have standardized administration or scoring procedures

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Using the source provided, respond to all parts of the question.

Introduction

Few large-scale, long-term studies have been conducted to test whether taking a multivitamin makes a difference in
improving memory ability as one ages. In this study, researchers examined whether taking a multivitamin slows cognitive
decline in later life.

Participants

An earlier study, which was conducted in 2017 and included over 21,000 people, examined the effects of taking a
multivitamin on health outcomes. From that study’s sample, over 7,000 people received a mailed invitation to participate
in this study. Of those who received the invitation, almost 4,000 participants agreed to participate and were accepted. To
be accepted, participants had to be over 65 years of age if women and over 60 years of age if men. In addition, they could
not participate if they had ever had a stroke, if they had received a cancer diagnosis in the two years before the study, or if
they had a history of any other serious illnesses. Participants had to be able to communicate in English and had to have
access to an Internet-connected computer.

A computer randomly assigned participants to two groups. Participants in Group 1 received a pack of multivitamins each
month by mail and were instructed to take one pill twice a day. Participants in Group 2 received a pack of placebo pills in
the same type of packaging as Group 1 and with the same instructions. The sample size of Group 1 was 1,758 people, and
the sample size of Group 2 was 1,804 people. The demographics of each group are listed in the table:

Demographics of Group 1 and Group 2

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Demographic Group 1-Multivitamin Group 2-Placebo

Percent or Mean Percent or Mean

(Standard Deviation in parenthesis when (Standard Deviation in parenthesis when
reported) reported)

Age 70.9 (4.5) 71.0 (4.6)

Gender

Men 32.9% 33.4%

Women 67.1% 66.6%

Race/Ethnicity

White or European American 93.1% 93.5%

Black or African American 2.3% 2.6%

Hispanic or Latino/a 1.5% 1.4%

Other race or Multiple races 1.8% 1.2%

Asian American or Native

0.2% 0.1%
Hawaiian

American Indian or Alaska

1.1% 1.2%
Native

Method

Once a year for 3 years, participants were asked to complete an online test to evaluate episodic memory and executive
functioning. Instructions on how to access the test materials were emailed to participants, and participants who responded
to the email indicated their consent. The participants received a $15 gift card for each annual assessment, regardless of
completion.

The multivitamin used in this study is widely available in the United States. Side effects of taking the multivitamin
include low rates of stomach pain, diarrhea, skin rash, bruising, and an increased rate of gastrointestinal bleeding, which
are considered normal side effects for those taking a multivitamin in the general population.

Two different tasks were used to measure episodic memory and executive functioning in this study:

• To measure episodic memory, participants completed a recall task in which they were first shown a set of words,
presented one at a time for three seconds each. They were then asked to recall the set of words, once immediately
after the word list was presented and again after 15 minutes had passed. Participants who recalled more words
correctly earned higher scores on this test.
• To measure executive functioning, participants were first shown one set of items and were then shown a second
set of items. They were asked to identify whether items in the second set of items were the same as or different
from the first set of items they were shown. Participants earned higher scores the more quickly they correctly

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identified whether the items from the second set of items were the same as or different from those in the original
set.

Results and Discussion

Compared with participants taking a placebo, participants receiving the multivitamin had significantly greater
improvement in the recall task at the end of the first year. Performance on the immediate recall task in Group 1 improved
from a mean of 7.10 words at baseline to 7.81 words after 1 year of taking the multivitamin, an improvement mean of
0.71. In Group 2, which received the placebo pills, performance on the immediate recall task improved from a mean of
7.21 words at baseline to 7.65 words after 1 year, an improvement mean of 0.44. When comparing the multivitamin group
with the placebo group, averaged across all 3 years of intervention, findings suggest that the memory improvement is
sustained over time, as shown in the graph.

Comparison of Memory Improvement Between 2 Groups

Researchers estimate that the effect of the multivitamin intervention improved memory performance in participants in the
multivitamin group by the equivalent of 3.1 years of age-related memory change as compared to participants in the

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placebo group. Researchers also found that executive functioning was not significantly impacted by taking a multivitamin.
The findings suggest that the greatest benefit of taking a multivitamin is found in immediate memory recall, something
especially vulnerable in aging adults.

Reprinted from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 118, Yeung, L-K., Alschuler, D. M., Wall, M., Luttman-Gibson, H., Copeland, T., Hale, C.,
Sloan, R. P., Sesso, H. D., Manson, J. E., Brickman, A. M. Multivitamin supplementation improves memory in older adults: A randomized clinical trial,
pages 273–282, Copyright 2023, with permission from Elsevier.

Adapted from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Your response to the question should be provided in six parts: A, B, C, D, E, and F. Write the response to each
37. part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology in your response.

A. Identify the research method used in the study.

Your response to the question should be provided in six parts: A, B, C, D, E, and F. Write the response to each part
of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology in your response. Using the
source provided, respond to the following questions. A. Identify the research method used in the study.

Write the response to each part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology.

Select a score below.

0 1

Accurately identifies the research method used in the study.

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response accurately identifies the research method used in the study as an experiment.

Examples that earn 1 point:

• “The research method is an experiment.”

38. Your response to the question should be provided in six parts: A, B, C, D, E, and F. Write the response to each
part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology in your response.

B. State the operational definition of executive functioning.

B. State the operational definition of executive functioning.

Write the response to each part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology.

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Select a score below.

0 1

States a measurable or quantifiable definition of the identified variable as used in the study.

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response states that the operational definition of executive functioning is whether the participant correctly
identified the second set of items shown as being the same as or different from the first set of items more quickly.

• The response states that the operational definition of executive functioning is the scores on the test.

Examples that earn 1 point:

• “The operational definition of ‘executive functioning’ is if the person was able to correctly and quickly identify
the second set of items shown as being different from or the same as the first set of items.”

• “The operational definition is the scores on the executive functioning test.”

39. Your response to the question should be provided in six parts: A, B, C, D, E, and F. Write the response to each
part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology in your response.

C. Describe what the difference in means indicates for the immediate recall task for the multivitamin group as
compared to the placebo group.

C. Describe the meaning of the differences in the means for the immediate recall task between the multivitamin
group and the placebo group.

Write the response to each part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology.

Select a score below.

0 1

Accurately describes the identified statistic in relation to the study.

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response accurately describes the meaning of the differences in the means for the immediate recall task
between the multivitamin group and the placebo group in relation to the study.

• The response accurately describes that the means show that the multivitamin group recalled more than the
placebo group.

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Examples that earn 1 point:

• “The means show that the multivitamin group had better recall than the placebo group.”

• “The means show that the placebo group had worse recall than the multivitamin group.”

• “The mean for the multivitamin group in Year 3 is 1.1, and the mean for the placebo group was 0.9. This means
that the multivitamin group remembered more over time than the placebo group.”

This question has three parts: Part A, Part B, and Part C. Use the three sources provided to answer all parts of the
question.

For Part B and Part C, you must cite the source that you used to answer the question. You can do this in two different
ways:

• Parenthetical Citation: For example: “...(Source 1)”

• Embedded Citation:For example: “According to Source 1,...”

Write the response to each part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology.

1
Introduction

In this study, researchers examined whether taking notes on a laptop led to better memory recall than taking handwritten
notes.

Participants

Sixty-seven students (33 men, 33 women, 1 not reported) were recruited from a participant pool at a university in New
Jersey.

Method

Researchers chose five prerecorded lectures that lasted approximately 15 minutes each. Although these lectures did not
cover common knowledge, the researchers chose topics that would be interesting to participants.

In general, two participants viewed the lecture videos together in the same room, though some participants completed the
study alone. The study room was preset with either laptops for computer-based notetaking or paper notebooks for
handwritten notetaking, according to condition. The laptops had full-size keyboards (11 in × 4 in) and were not connected
to the Internet.

The lectures were projected onto a screen at the front of the room. Participants were instructed to use their preferred note-
taking strategy of either writing notes by hand or taking notes using a laptop. The experimenter left the room while the

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AP Psychology Unit 6 Exam (Memory and Cognition)

lectures played.

Next, participants were taken to a lab to complete a distractor task 1and a challenging memory task. For the distractor
task, using a laptop, participants were shown several arithmetic equations and asked to indicate for each one whether the
answer was correct. For the memory task, they were given several letters to remember for later recall. After several
presentations of unrelated material, a grid with letters was presented. Participants were asked to click on the letters they
saw earlier during the task in the correct order.

By the end of these tasks, approximately 30 minutes had elapsed since the end of the lecture participants had seen.
Participants were asked both factual-recall questions (e.g., “Approximately how many years ago did the Indus civilization
exist?”) and conceptual-application questions (e.g., “How do Japan and Sweden differ in their approaches to equality
within their societies?”) related to the topics covered in the lectures; participants also completed several demographic
measures. The responses were scored by raters unaware of the conditions. Ratings were consistent, but any disputes
between the raters were resolved by discussion.

Results and Discussion

Participants performed equally well across conditions for factual-recall questions. However, on conceptual-application
questions, participants who took notes using a laptop performed significantly worse than participants who took
handwritten notes (p = 0.03) 2.

For each participant, the researchers determined the number of words in their lecture notes and the degree to which three-
word chunks of text from a transcript of the lecture were present in those notes to determine the extent to which the notes
from the lecture were verbatim. 3Researchers found that notes taken using a laptop had a 14.6% verbatim overlap with the
lecture, while notes taken by hand averaged an 8.8% verbatim overlap. Participants whose handwritten notes overlapped
less with the verbatim lecture performed better on factual-recall and conceptual-application questions.

Adapted from Association for Psychological Science.

Mueller, P.A., & Oppenheimer, D.M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of handwritten notes
over laptop notetaking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159-1168. [Link]

1: A distractor task is one in which participants complete a task that is unrelated to the primary memory task before they are asked to recall the
target information.↩
2: The p-value is a measure of statistical significance. A p-value less than 0.05 indicates that the difference between the means of the two groups is
more likely due to the independent variable from the study than due to chance.↩
3: word-for-word↩

2
Introduction

In this study, researchers examined whether taking notes on a laptop led to better memory recall than taking handwritten
notes. This study is a replication of the study from Source 1.

Participants

A total of 145 undergraduate students from a university in Boston, Massachusetts, participated in the experiment.

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Participants received $15 in compensation. The demographic information of the participants is listed in the table.

Participant Demographics

Demographic Percentage of Participants

Year in school
First-year students 12%
Sophomores 49%
Juniors 23%
Seniors 17%
Gender 1
Women 62%
Men 37%
Race/Ethnicity 2
Black/African American 5%
Asian/Asian American 24%
White/European American 58%
Hispanic/Latino/a 5%
Multiracial 7%

Method

After participants provided written informed consent, the researchers allowed each participant to choose either a pen and
paper or a researcher-owned laptop for taking notes. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of five prerecorded
lectures used in the original study and asked to take notes while watching. Each lecture lasted approximately 15 minutes.
The researcher moved to an area of the room where they could not be seen by participants.

After the participants took notes while watching the entire lecture, the researcher collected the tools used for note-taking.
The participants then completed a set of distractor tasks 3, including a typing test, a questionnaire, and a reading span
task. The distraction period lasted approximately 30 minutes and did not vary by note-taking condition. After completing
the distractor tasks, each participant responded to the same quiz questions for the particular lecture they saw. The
researchers divided quiz questions into two types: factual-recall and conceptual-application.

There were 68 participants in the laptop note-taking condition (12 to 14 participants per lecture) and 74 participants in the
handwritten note-taking condition (13 to 18 participants per lecture).

The researchers determined the total number of words in each participant’s lecture notes and the degree to which three-
word chunks of text from a transcript of the lecture were present in those notes to determine the extent to which the notes

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from the lecture were verbatim 4.

Results and Discussion

Consistent with the original study, the difference in the mean number of factual questions recalled between the laptop and
handwritten conditions was not significant. Contrary to the original study, the difference in the mean number of
conceptual-application questions recalled was not statistically significant.

The mean number of factual questions correctly answered in the laptop condition was 0.63 (standard deviation = 0.20);
the mean number of factual questions correctly answered in the handwritten condition was 0.62 (standard deviation =
0.23). The mean number of conceptual-application questions correctly answered in the laptop condition was 0.74
(standard deviation = 0.19); the mean number of conceptual-application questions correctly answered in the handwritten
condition was 0.70 (standard deviation = 0.23).

Consistent with the original study, the total word count for notes taken using a laptop (mean = 230.69, standard deviation
= 133.87) was higher than the total word count for notes taken by hand (mean = 136.16, standard deviation = 66.26; p <
0.001) 5. Again, consistent with the original study, the amount of verbatim overlap for notes taken using a laptop (mean =
12.97, standard deviation = 6.53) was higher than verbatim overlap for notes taken by hand (mean = 8.13, standard
deviation = 4.73; p < 0.001).

The results of this replication study are consistent with the original study in that they demonstrate that notes taken using a
laptop showed more of a verbatim overlap with the assigned lecture than did handwritten notes. These results also showed
that the type of note-taking condition did not affect factual quiz performance. However, not all the replication results are
consistent with the results of the original study in that they do not demonstrate that taking handwritten notes leads to
higher scores on the conceptual quiz.

Researchers suggested that it would be tempting to conclude that taking more notes causes better quiz performance or that
taking verbatim notes causes worse performance. However, the researchers did not manipulate word count or the extent to
which the notes exhibited verbatim overlap with the lecture; thus, alternative explanations are plausible. Higher word
count or lower verbatim overlap may reflect other variables that could prompt students to take more notes in their own
words and answer more questions correctly on the test.

Adapted from Association for Psychological Science.

Urry, H.L., Crittle, C.S., Floerke, V.A., Leonard, M.Z., Perry, III, C.S., Akdilek, N., Albert, E.R., Block, A.J., Bollinger,
C.A., Bowers, E.M., Brody, R.S., Burk, K.C., Burnstein, A., Chan, A.K., Chan, P.C., Chang, L.J., Chen, E.,
Chiarawongse, C.P., Chin, G....Zarrow, J. (2021). Don’t ditch the laptop just yet: A direct replication of Mueller and
Oppenheimer’s (2014) study 1 plus mini meta-analyses across similar studies. Psychological Science, 32(3), 326-339.
[Link]

1: One participant declined to report their gender.↩

2: Two participants declined to report their race/ethnicity.↩
3: A distractor task is one in which participants complete a task that is unrelated to the primary memory task before they are asked to recall the
target information.↩
4: word-for-word↩
5: The p-value is a measure of statistical significance. A p-value less than 0.05 indicates that the difference between the means of the two groups is
more likely due to the independent variable from the study than to chance.↩

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3
Introduction

The traditional method of handwriting notes has largely been replaced by taking notes using tablets, smartphones, and
laptops. It has been theorized that writing notes by hand requires more complex cognitive processes and may lead to better
retention. However, few studies have investigated the use of tablet-based note-taking, which incorporates typing, drawing,
and highlighting, and its effect on recall compared to laptop or handwritten note-taking.

Participants

Sixty-eight medical students participated in the study (31 men and 37 women). The participants ranged in age from 21 to
29 years old, with an average age of 24 years.

Method

The participants were divided into groups based on their note-taking preference: handwritten, laptop, or tablet. The
researchers felt that the most accurate representation of note-taking efficacy would be achieved by having participants use
the format with which they were most comfortable. The tablet group was encouraged to use their preference of typing,
using a stylus, or using a note-taking application.

Participants were allowed to self-select into groups depending on their preferred method of notetaking; the groups
consisted of 19 participants in the handwritten group, 7 participants in the laptop group, and 42 participants in the tablet
group.

Participants watched a prerecorded lecture on a subject they had no prior knowledge of and were advised to take notes
using their chosen method in preparation for a quiz afterward. After the video, students were asked to turn in their notes
by either email or paper copy to the study coordinator. Following this intervention, students watched a different
prerecorded lecture to distract them before taking a final quiz. After watching the second video, students were given a
10-question short answer quiz about factual and conceptual concepts covered in the first video. Students were given 30
minutes to complete the quiz.

Results and Discussion

There was no significant difference in the factual-recall scores on the quiz across the handwritten, laptop, and tablet note-
taking conditions. There was no significant difference in the conceptual-application scores on the quiz across handwritten,
laptop, and tablet note-taking. The median word count of notes taken was 121.0 for handwriting, 297.0 for laptops, and
131.5 for tablets, and the difference among these groups was statistically significant. The total number of drawings,
highlighting, or other media/tools was 3 (15.8%) in the handwriting group, 0 (0.0%) in the laptop group, and 17 (40.5%)
in the tablet group.

Results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between the use of handwriting, laptops, and tablets in
factual or conceptual comprehension, suggesting they are similar in effectiveness. It is important to note that the sample
size of the laptop students was extremely small and unlikely to generate statistically significant results. These results
suggest that taking notes using a tablet is as effective as taking notes by hand.

Adapted from Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute.

Wiechmann, W., Edwards, R., Low, C., Wray, A., Boysen-Osborn, M., & Toohey, S. (2022). No difference in factual or conceptual recall

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comprehension for tablet, laptop, and handwritten notetaking by medical students in the United States: A survey-based observational study. Journal of
Educational Evaluation for Health Professions, 19(8). Published online: 26 April 2022. DOI: [Link]

40. Using the sources provided, develop and justify an argument about a note-taking technique that is more likely to
improve memory retrieval.

A. Propose a specific and defensible claim based in psychological science that responds to the question.

B.

(i) Support your claim using at least one piece of specific and relevant evidence from one of the sources.

(ii) Explain how the evidence from Part B (i) supports your claim using a psychological perspective, theory,
concept, or research finding learned in AP Psychology.

C.

(i) Support your claim using an additional piece of specific and relevant evidence from a different source than the
one that was used in Part B (i).

(ii) Explain how the evidence from Part C (i) supports your claim using a different psychological perspective,
theory, concept, or research finding learned in AP Psychology than the one that was used in Part B (ii).

The following question has three parts: Part A, Part B, and Part C. Use the three sources provided to answer all
parts of the question. Using the sources provided, develop and justify an argument about a note-taking technique
that is more likely to improve memory retrieval. A. Propose a specific and defensible claim based in psychological
science that responds to the question.

Write the response to each part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology.

Additional Notes:

• A claim that meets the criteria can be awarded the points regardless of whether the responses in Parts B and C
successfully support the claim.

Select a score below.

0 1

Proposes a claim that is relevant to the question

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response proposes a claim that suggests a positive or negative effect on the question.

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• The response proposes a recommendation for the application of the question.

• The response proposes a specific effect on the question.

Examples that earn 1 point:

• “Students should take notes by hand because it’s more likely to improve memory retrieval.”

• “The research shows that factual memory is good when students take notes on a laptop so they should choose
this method.”

• “I believe that to improve memory for test material students should combine techniques and use both a computer
to take notes and handwritten notes.”

B. (i) Support your claim using at least one piece of specific and relevant evidence from one of the sources.

For Part B and Part C, you must cite the source that you used to answer the question. You can do this in two different
ways:

• Parenthetical Citation:

For example: “...(Source 1)”

• Embedded Citation:

For example: “According to Source 1,...”

Write the response to each part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology.

Additional Notes:

• Responses that use correct citation style other than the method prescribed by the question can earn this point for
citing the source.

Select a score below.

0 1

Uses one piece of correctly cited, specific, and relevant evidence from one of the provided sources to support the claim.

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The evidence is correctly cited and provides specific evidence relevant to the claim.

Examples that earn 1 point:

• “According to Source 1, students who take notes by hand do better on concept application questions than
students who take notes on a laptop.”

• “Source 2 says that students who take notes on a computer are going to take more notes than students who take

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notes by hand.”

B. (ii) Explain how the evidence from Part B (i) supports your claim using a psychological perspective, theory,
concept, or research finding learned in AP Psychology.

For Part B and Part C, you must cite the source that you used to answer the question. You can do this in two different
ways:

• Parenthetical Citation:

For example: “...(Source 1)”

• Embedded Citation:

For example: “According to Source 1,...”

Write the response to each part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology.

Additional Notes:

• The explanation and application points can be earned even if the response did not earn the point in B (i) due to
incorrectly cited and/or nonspecific evidence.

• The psychological perspective, theory, concept, or research finding must be explicitly identified in the AP
Psychology Course and Exam Description (2024).

• The presence of a citation indicates the sentence or phrase is intended to be evidence. All text before the citation
will be considered evidence. Text after a citation will be considered reasoning, unless accompanied by another
citation.

Select a score below.

0 1 2

Applies a psychological perspective, theory, concept, or research finding to explain how the evidence supports the claim.

Responses that earn 2 points:

• The response correctly interprets the evidence and applies a psychological perspective, theory, concept, or
research finding correctly.

Examples that earn 2 points:

• “Students taking notes by hand will be more likely to engage in semantic encoding because they will have to
process the meaning of the notes they are taking.”

• “Students who take notes on a laptop are more likely to be distracted, which means they could miss details in the
environment, which is known as inattentional blindness.”

C. (i) Support your claim using an additional piece of specific and relevant evidence from a different source than

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the one that was used in Part B (i).

For Part B and Part C, you must cite the source that you used to answer the question. You can do this in two different
ways:

• Parenthetical Citation:

For example: “...(Source 1)”

• Embedded Citation:

For example: “According to Source 1,...”

Write the response to each part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology.

Additional Notes:

• Responses that use correct citation style other than the method prescribed by the question can earn this point for
citing the source.

Select a score below.

0 1

Uses a different piece of correctly cited, specific, and relevant evidence from either of the other two provided sources to
support the claim.

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The evidence is correctly cited and provides specific evidence relevant to the claim.

Examples that earn 1 point:

• “One study (Source 2) did not find a difference in the method of notetaking on quiz performance on conceptually
based questions.”

• “In Source 3 it says that there was no significant difference in test performance between notes taken on tablets,
laptops, or handwritten.”

C. (ii) Explain how the evidence from Part C (i) supports your claim using a different psychological perspective,
theory, concept, or research finding learned in AP Psychology than the one that was used in Part B (ii).

For Part B and Part C, you must cite the source that you used to answer the question. You can do this in two different
ways:

• Parenthetical Citation:

For example: “...(Source 1)”

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• Embedded Citation:

For example: “According to Source 1,...”

Write the response to each part of the question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology.

Additional Notes:

• The explanation and application points can be earned even if the response did not earn the point in C (i) due to
incorrectly cited and/or nonspecific evidence.

• The explanation and application points can be earned if the response uses the same source in both Parts B and C,
provided that the evidence used in Part B and Part C is different.

• The psychological perspective, theory, concept, or research finding must be explicitly identified in the AP
Psychology Course and Exam Description (2024) and is different from the perspective, theory, concept, or
research finding used in Part B.

• The presence of a citation indicates the sentence or phrase is intended to be evidence. All text prior to the citation
will be considered evidence. Text after a citation will be considered reasoning, unless accompanied by another
citation.

Select a score below.

0 1 2

Applies a different psychological perspective, theory, concept, or research finding to explain how the evidence supports
the claim. The psychological perspective, theory, concept, or research finding is different from the one used in Part B (ii).

Responses that earn 2 points:

• The response correctly interprets the evidence and applies a psychological perspective, theory, concept, or
research finding that is different from the one used in Part B.

Examples that earn 2 points:

• “Because there is not a difference in quiz performance, it shows that taking notes in both ways requires effort, or
elaborative rehearsal.”

• “Taking notes at all may indicate that students are more conscientious, meaning notetaking in any form would
lead to better quiz performance.”

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