AP Psychology Important Experiments

Question 1

Milgram Shock Experiment

Answer 1

participant told a confederate is sitting in another room answering questions, for every question wrong participants increases shock applied
*ethics and obedience

Question 2

Elizabeth Loftus Mall Experiment

Answer 2

group told about a time they were lost in a mall when younger (made up experience), 1/4 of participants ‘remembered’ this and could give details
*misremembering

Question 3

Little Albert

Answer 3

little boy conditioned to fear white rat - shown the rat and a loud sound is played to make Albert associate the fear from sound w/ rat - then he develops fear of other furry things and white objects
*fear, conditioning, generalization

Question 4

B.F. Skinner Pigeon Studies

Answer 4

underweight pigeons placed in a box that would release treats if the work peck was showing and the bird pecked the button OR the word turn was showing and the bird turned
*operant conditioning

Question 5

Kohler Chimpanzee Studies

Answer 5

chimp placed in environment with treats hanging from ceiling and boxes on the ground, chimp would wander room until discovering they could stack the crates and make stairs to reach ceiling
*insight learning

Question 6

Tolman Mice Maze

Answer 6

group 1 mice sent through maze with a treat given after every trial, group 2 mice never received treat, group 3 mice got treats half of the time; group 3 performed best since they were given an incentive to recall knowledge
*latent learning
*mental maps

Question 7

Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment

Answer 7

children watched a video of a room w/ the doll, toys, and an adult - one group saw adult be violent w/ doll –> kids became aggressive w/ doll; another group saw adult be nice to doll –> kids nice to doll
*observational learning
*social learning

Question 8

Pavlov’s Dogs

Answer 8

dogs shown food salivate (stimulus + unconditioned response), rings a bell then gives dog treat (conditioned stimulus + unconditioned response), cont. until association formed, when bell is rung dogs salivate
*classical conditioning
*extinction
*spontaneous revival

Question 9

Garcia & Koelling Tast Aversion w/ Mice

Answer 9

mice inclined to drink sweetened water tainted w/ radiation – instead of water that administers a shock – they develop sickness, they instead drink water that shocks them
*classical conditioning
*taste aversion

Question 10

Thorndike Puzzle Box

Answer 10

cats placed in line of boxes where each one could only be opened by pushing button/pulling lever, he made them go through the line repeatedly, cats became faster
*operant conditioning

Question 11

Solomon Asch Line Study

Answer 11

participant asked to pick which lines matched in a room w/ other ‘participants’, the non participant members picked the wrong line, often person chose to conform even though they knew it was wrong
*conformity

Question 12

Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 12

students either assigned guard/prisoner, adopted and internalized roles, violent behavior, abuse, unionizing, etc
*attitudes
*social conformity

Question 13

Singer/Schachter Two-Factor Experiment

Answer 13

participants injected w/ adrenaline then placed in room w/ either a goofy/aggravated person, group w/ goofy person rated having a + experience, group w/ aggravated person rated having a - experience

Question 14

Visual Cliff

Answer 14

table set up with 1/2 covered in chequered pattern, other 1/2 a glass sheet high above a chequered pattern on ground; babies placed on first half and allowed to crawl, when they reached the glass side they stopped after sensing the depth change
*depth perception
*fear

Question 15

Bouchard Minnesota Twin Studied

Answer 15

identical twins reared apart had same chance of being similar as twins reared together
*gentics
*twins
*nature vs. nuture

Question 16

Ainsworth Strange Situation

Answer 16

child and mother placed in room, mom leaves, stranger enters, mom reenters
–> secure: distressed when mom leaves, go to her when returns
–> ambivalent: anxious w/ mom, upset when mom leaves, go to her when returns + irritated
–> avoidant: don’t react when mom leaves, avoid her when she returns
*measured attachment btwn mother and child

Question 17

Harlow Monkey Mothers

Answer 17

infant monkeys removed from mothers then placed in enclosure w/ a wire mother and a cloth mother, cloth mother provided warmth/comfort, wire mother provided milk
*attachment about comfort
*attachment is formed through responsiveness of caregivers to baby’s signlas