• 87 questions

AP Psychology Unit 2 AP Practice Test Questions

Unofficial AP Psych practice tests for Unit 2, Cognition: perception, thinking, memory and intelligence, one set per topic.

A proofreader misses a doubled word because she reads what she expects the sentence to say. Which kind of processing misled her?

Pick an answer, then press Check answer. Then you see Correct or Not quite, with the reason. Keys: A to D pick, Enter checks.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the College Board. Bank checked October 14, 2026.

Next step Next: AP Psych Unit 3Back to AP Psych Unit 1

All 87 questions

Topic 2.1: Perception 18

  • A dinner plate seen from the side casts an oval image on the eye, but the diner still sees a round plate. Which perceptual process is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "shape constancy"; course topic 2.1
  • A field holds rows of red tulips and rows of yellow tulips planted the same distance apart. Visitors see red stripes and yellow stripes. Which Gestalt principle groups the flowers? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "similarity"; course topic 2.1
  • A friend walks away down a long hallway. Her image on the retina shrinks, yet she does not seem to be getting smaller. What is this called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "size constancy"; course topic 2.1
  • A logo is drawn as a circle with three gaps in its outline, yet viewers report seeing a whole circle. Which Gestalt principle is at work? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "closure"; course topic 2.1
  • A painter draws the two rails of a train track so that they meet at a point on the horizon. Which monocular cue gives the picture its depth? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "linear perspective"; course topic 2.1
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Topic 2.1: Perception, continued

  • A picture of an airplane flashes on a screen, then a blank screen, then the same picture with one engine missing. Many viewers see no difference. What is this failure called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "change blindness"; course topic 2.1
  • A proofreader misses a doubled word because she reads what she expects the sentence to say. Which kind of processing misled her? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "top-down processing"; course topic 2.1
  • A toddler handles a fruit she has never seen, taking in its color, weight and smell before she has any idea what it is. Which kind of processing is she relying on? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "bottom-up processing"; course topic 2.1
  • As a finger moves toward the nose, the eyes turn inward, and the strain in the eye muscles signals that the finger is close. Which depth cue is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "convergence"; course topic 2.1
  • The bulbs around a theater sign light up one after another, and people passing see a single light racing around the frame. What are they perceiving? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "apparent movement"; course topic 2.1
  • Each eye sees a nearby pencil from a slightly different position, and the brain uses the difference between the two images to judge how far away the pencil is. Which depth cue is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "binocular disparity"; course topic 2.1
  • In a noisy cafeteria Dana is deep in talk with a friend, yet she turns at once when someone two tables away says her name. What is this called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "cocktail-party effect"; course topic 2.1
  • In a photograph a mailbox hides part of a parked car, so the viewer judges the mailbox to be nearer. Which monocular cue is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "interposition"; course topic 2.1
  • In one drawing a viewer sees either a white vase or two dark faces in profile, but never both at the same moment. Which principle decides what stands out? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "figure–ground"; course topic 2.1
  • On a hazy day the far hills look blurred and bluish while the near trees look sharp, so the hills seem farther away. Which monocular cue is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "aerial perspective"; course topic 2.1
  • On a seating chart, twenty-four dots are printed in six tight clusters of four, and viewers see six tables and not twenty-four separate seats. Which Gestalt principle explains this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "proximity"; course topic 2.1
  • Two hikers hear the same rustle. The one who was just warned about bears sees a bear in the bushes; the other sees a branch moving in the wind. What explains the difference? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "perceptual set"; course topic 2.1
  • Viewers who are told to count the passes in a basketball video fail to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through the players. What does this show? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "inattentional blindness"; course topic 2.1

Topic 2.2: Thinking, problem-solving, judgments and decision-making 15

  • A roulette wheel has landed on red six times in a row, and a player bets heavily on black because black "is due". Which error is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "gambler’s fallacy"; course topic 2.2
  • A student solves five puzzles in a row with the same three-step method and keeps using it on a sixth puzzle that has a one-step solution. What is holding her back? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "mental set"; course topic 2.2
  • A teacher asks the class to invent as many unusual ways to use a brick as they can. Which kind of thinking does the task call for? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "divergent thinking" and "convergent thinking"; course topic 2.2
  • A town has 10 librarians and 2,000 shop workers. Told that Lena is quiet and loves books, most people still guess that she is a librarian. Which heuristic are they using? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "representativeness heuristic"; course topic 2.2
  • After a week of news reports about one shark attack, a swimmer rates shark attacks as far more likely than they are. Which heuristic explains his judgment? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "availability heuristic"; course topic 2.2
  • Asked to name a bird, most students in a class say robin or sparrow long before penguin. What is the robin for their concept of a bird? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "prototype"; course topic 2.2
  • Halfway through a film he dislikes, Ravi stays to the end because he has already paid for the ticket. Which error is this? Wikipedia, "Sunk cost"; course topic 2.2 (essential knowledge 2.2.A.6)
  • Later Zara decides that whether a thing floats depends on its shape as well as on what it is made of. Which process has changed her thinking? College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 2.2, essential knowledge 2.2.A.2
  • Locked out of a three-digit bike lock, Omar tries 000, 001, 002 and so on until it opens. What kind of strategy is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "algorithm"; course topic 2.2
  • Needing to tighten a screw and having no screwdriver, Mia never thinks of using the coin in her pocket. What is blocking her? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "functional fixedness"; course topic 2.2
  • People who have just seen the word "doctor" on a screen recognize the word "nurse" faster than an unrelated word. What is this effect called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "priming"; course topic 2.2
  • Planning the steps of a term paper, resisting the urge to check a phone and choosing between two goals all draw on which set of cognitive processes? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "executive functions"; course topic 2.2
  • Shoppers choose ground beef labeled "80% lean" over the same beef labeled "20% fat". What does the difference in their choices show? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "framing"; course topic 2.2
  • What does a heuristic give up in exchange for speed? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "heuristic"; course topic 2.2
  • Zara believes that all metal objects sink. Shown a steel boat that floats, she says, "Then it is not really metal." In the course's terms, what has she done with the new information? College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 2.2, essential knowledge 2.2.A.2

Topic 2.3: Introduction to memory 14

  • A sparkler waved in the dark seems to leave a trail of light for a fraction of a second. Which memory store holds that brief image? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "iconic memory"; course topic 2.3
  • A woman who has not ridden a bicycle in twenty years climbs on and pedals away without thinking about how. Which memory is she using? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "procedural memory"; course topic 2.3
  • Asked "Are you listening?", a daydreaming student can still repeat the teacher's last few words. Which store held them? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "echoic memory"; course topic 2.3
  • By the levels of processing model, which task should leave the strongest memory of the word "river"? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "levels-of-processing model of memory"; course topic 2.3
  • The course names three levels of encoding in the levels of processing model. Which order runs from shallowest to deepest? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "semantic encoding"; course topic 2.3 (essential knowledge 2.3.A.5)
  • In long-term potentiation, what happens to the connection between two neurons that are activated together again and again? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "long-term potentiation (LTP)"; course topic 2.3
  • In the multi-store model, through which systems must information pass, in order, to be remembered? College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 2.3, essential knowledge 2.3.A.4
  • In the working memory model, which component directs attention and manages the other two but stores nothing itself? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "central executive"; course topic 2.3
  • Knowing what the word "island" means, with no memory of when or where you learned it, is which type of memory? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "semantic memory"; course topic 2.3
  • Picturing your bedroom to decide whether a new desk would fit beside the window uses which part of working memory? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "visuospatial sketchpad"; course topic 2.3
  • Remembering the afternoon you passed your driving test, where you stood and how you felt, is an example of which type of memory? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "episodic memory"; course topic 2.3
  • Remembering to hand in a permission slip tomorrow morning is an example of which memory? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "prospective memory"; course topic 2.3
  • Repeating a phone number under your breath while you hunt for a pen keeps it alive in which part of working memory? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "phonological loop"; course topic 2.3
  • Which statement separates explicit memory from implicit memory? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "explicit memory" and "implicit memory"; course topic 2.3

Topic 2.4: Encoding memories 8

  • A cashier remembers the twelve-digit code 202420252026 as three years in a row. Which process makes this possible? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "chunking"; course topic 2.4
  • A student remembers the order of the steps in a lab procedure with a made-up sentence whose words begin with the same letters as the steps. What is the sentence? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "mnemonic"; course topic 2.4
  • Cramming all of a unit's review into the night before the test is an example of what? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "massed practice"; course topic 2.4
  • Read a list of fifteen grocery items once, a shopper recalls the first three and the last three but few from the middle. What is this pattern called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "serial position effect"; course topic 2.4
  • Straight after hearing a list of names read aloud, a listener most easily repeats the last few. Which effect is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "recency effect"; course topic 2.4
  • Ten candidates speak at an assembly. A week later the students remember the first speaker best. Which effect is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "primacy effect"; course topic 2.4
  • To memorize a speech, Priya pictures each point sitting in a different room of her house and walks through the rooms in her mind. Which mnemonic is she using? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "method of loci"; course topic 2.4
  • Two students each study vocabulary for three hours. One does it in a single night; the other studies for one hour on each of three days. By the spacing effect, who should remember more a month later? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "spacing effect"; course topic 2.4

Topic 2.5: Storing memories 8

  • A few people can remember an abnormally large number of their own life experiences in vivid detail. What does the course call this ability? Wikipedia, "Hyperthymesia"; course topic 2.5 (essential knowledge 2.5.A.3)
  • Adults generally cannot recall events from their earliest childhood. What is this called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "childhood amnesia"; course topic 2.5
  • After a head injury, a patient remembers his childhood and his job but cannot remember anything he has been told since the accident. Which condition is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "amnesia"; course topic 2.5
  • After an accident, a patient learns the names of her new nurses easily but cannot recall the year before the accident. Which condition is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "amnesia"; course topic 2.5
  • Kai repeats a locker combination over and over until he reaches the locker, and has forgotten it by lunch. What kind of rehearsal did he use? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "maintenance rehearsal"; course topic 2.5
  • To remember a new classmate named George, Jo thinks of three other people named George and what she knows about each. Why should this work better than repeating the name? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "elaborative rehearsal"; course topic 2.5
  • Which memory store is described as holding a limited amount of material for about 10 to 30 seconds? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "short-term memory (STM)" and "long-term memory (LTM)"; course topic 2.5
  • Which storage problem named in the course is a progressive disease marked by a gradual decline in memory and thinking? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "Alzheimer’s disease"; course topic 2.5

Topic 2.6: Retrieving memories 7

  • A runner memorizes a poem while out of breath on a treadmill and later recalls it better while exercising hard than while resting. What is this called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "state-dependent memory"; course topic 2.6
  • A student who learned a word list in the library recalls more of it when tested in the library than when tested in the gym. Which effect is this? College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 2.6, essential knowledge 2.6.A.2
  • After failing a quiz, Tess finds that every memory that comes to mind is of some other failure. Which effect is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "mood-congruent memory"; course topic 2.6
  • Before a test, Ben sorts his flashcards into "know cold" and "still shaky" and studies only the second pile. Which process is he using? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "metacognition"; course topic 2.6
  • Stuck on an actor's name, Maya is told "it starts with D", and the name comes at once. What did the hint serve as? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "retrieval cue"; course topic 2.6
  • Two groups read a chapter. One rereads it; the other closes the book and answers practice questions for the same length of time. Whom does research on the testing effect favor a week later? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "testing effect"; course topic 2.6
  • Which test item calls for recall and not recognition? College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 2.6, essential knowledge 2.6.A.1

Topic 2.7: Forgetting and other memory challenges 10

  • A student who learned Spanish first keeps producing Spanish words in her new Italian class. Which kind of interference is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "proactive interference (PI)"; course topic 2.7
  • A witness saw a blue car leave an accident. A detective's question mentions "the green car", and a week later the witness is sure the car was green. What is this error called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "misinformation effect"; course topic 2.7
  • Adults are asked to picture in detail a childhood event that never happened. Afterward they rate it as more likely to have really happened. What is this effect called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "imagination inflation"; course topic 2.7
  • After memorizing her new phone number, Li can no longer recall her old one. Which kind of interference is this? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "retroactive interference"; course topic 2.7
  • Asked which way the face points on a coin she handles every day, Ana cannot say. She has never paid attention to it. Which cause of forgetting does the course name for a case like this? College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 2.7, essential knowledge 2.7.A.2
  • "I know this author's name. It's right there. Two syllables, I think." What is the speaker experiencing? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon (TOT phenomenon)"; course topic 2.7
  • Omar is certain of a fact about octopuses but has no idea whether he read it, saw it in a video or heard it from a friend. What is this called? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "source amnesia"; course topic 2.7
  • Retelling a restaurant visit, Dev "remembers" being handed a menu, though that night the waiter recited the dishes aloud. His general knowledge of restaurants filled the gap. What does this illustrate? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "constructive memory"; course topic 2.7
  • What shape does the forgetting curve have? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "forgetting curve"; course topic 2.7
  • Which explanation of forgetting comes from psychodynamic theory? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "repression"; course topic 2.7

Topic 2.8: Intelligence and achievement 7

  • A college finds that scores on its entrance test rise and fall with the grades students earn a year later. Which kind of validity does this show? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "predictive validity"; course topic 2.8
  • A music school tests ten-year-olds who have never played an instrument, to forecast which of them will learn one quickly. What kind of test is it? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "aptitude test"; course topic 2.8
  • A new aptitude test gives one student a score of 130 on Monday and 95 on Friday, with nothing changed in between. Which quality does the test lack? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "retest reliability"; course topic 2.8
  • The course says researchers work to make intelligence assessments socio-culturally responsive. Which problem is that meant to reduce? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "stereotype threat"; course topic 2.8 (essential knowledge 2.8.B.3)
  • Every student takes an exam with the same instructions, the same time limit and the same scoring rules. What does this make the exam? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "standardization"; course topic 2.8
  • "I'm not good at essays yet, but each revision gets better." Which belief about ability does this express? College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 2.8, essential knowledge 2.8.D.2
  • Researchers still disagree about what intelligence is. Which two positions does the course set against each other? APA Dictionary of Psychology, "general factor"; course topic 2.8 (essential knowledge 2.8.A.1)

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to Unit 2 (Cognition) of the College Board's AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-psychology-course-and-exam-description.pdf, read 2026-10-14: topics 2.1 to 2.8. Each fact was read on 2026-10-14 in the entry of the APA Dictionary of Psychology (American Psychological Association, https://dictionary.apa.org) named under its question; where the dictionary has no entry, in the essential knowledge statement of the course description or the Wikipedia article named there. Licence: Own work.

How it works

These AP Psychology Unit 2 practice test questions cover Cognition: 87 of our own on perception, thinking, memory and intelligence. The College Board owns AP and had no part in them, so this practice is unofficial.

Read the full guide

What Unit 2 covers

In the College Board's course description, read October 14, 2026, Unit 2 is Cognition, with eight topics. Each has a set here: perception (18 questions), thinking, problem-solving, judgments and decision-making (15), introduction to memory (14), encoding (8), storing (8), retrieving (7), forgetting and other memory challenges (10), and intelligence and achievement (7). The description weights no topic, so the counts are ours.

Only the listed depth cues

The description limits the exam to five monocular depth cues: relative clarity, relative size, texture gradient, linear perspective and interposition. Cues that only a textbook lists are not asked here.

Sources you can open

Every answer names the entry of the APA Dictionary of Psychology, or the statement of the course description, that it rests on.

  • Name interference by its victim: proactive interference hurts the new memory, retroactive interference hurts the old one.
  • Anterograde amnesia loses new memories made after the injury. Retrograde amnesia loses old ones from before it.
  • Recall gives no cues, as in an essay. Recognition gives them, as in multiple choice.

Questions and answers

Is AP Psychology Unit 2 research methods?

Not in the current course description. Research methods is a science practice, Research Methods and Design, that runs through all five units and is worth about 25% of the multiple-choice section. A study guide that calls Unit 2 research methods follows an older outline.

What should an AP Psych Unit 2 study guide include?

Top-down and bottom-up processing, Gestalt principles and depth cues; heuristics and the two fallacies; the working memory and multi-store models; encoding, storage and retrieval; interference and the misinformation effect; and g, reliability, validity and mindset.

How much of the AP Psychology exam is Unit 2?

Between 15 and 25% of the multiple-choice section, the same as each of the five units. That section has 75 questions in 90 minutes and is 66.7% of the exam score.

Is this the AP Psychology Unit 2 Progress Check?

No. Progress Check 2, about 25 multiple-choice questions by the course description, belongs to the College Board and is assigned in AP Classroom. These are separate questions written for this site.

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