AP®PsychologyCollege BoardExam QuestionsCognitionIntelligence & Achievement

Intelligence & Achievement (College Board AP® Psychology): Exam Questions

4 mins4 questions
1
1 mark

A test developer is creating a new intelligence assessment. She administers the test to 500 students from a single private school in one city to establish the scoring norms. A colleague argues that the norms will not be valid for the general population.

Which of the following changes would most directly address the colleague's concern?

  • Increasing the number of test items to improve internal consistency

  • Administering the test to a sample that reflects the diversity of the broader population

  • Reducing the difficulty of the test items so that more students can complete them

  • Calculating a test-retest reliability coefficient to confirm scores are stable over time

Choose your answer

2
1 mark

A 75-year-old retired professor excels at crossword puzzles and general knowledge quizzes, drawing on decades of accumulated vocabulary and factual knowledge. However, she struggles more than she did in her 30's when asked to solve novel logic puzzles she has never encountered before.

Which of the following best explains this pattern?

  • Her g factor has increased with age, improving accumulated knowledge but reducing abstract reasoning

  • Crystallized intelligence increases with experience and age, while fluid intelligence tends to decline

  • Fluid intelligence increases with age due to accumulated experience, while crystallized intelligence declines

  • Her working memory capacity has declined with age, affecting stored knowledge retrieval

Choose your answer

3
1 mark

Researchers comparing IQ test data across several high-income countries find that average scores have risen substantially over the past 80 years — gains far too rapid to be explained by genetic change.

Which of the following most accurately explains this trend?

  • The Flynn Effect

  • Heritability

  • Stereotype threat

  • Crystallized intelligence

Choose your answer

4
1 mark

A researcher finds that female students who are told before a math test that "women typically perform worse than men on this test" score significantly lower than female students given no such information, despite both groups having identical prior attainment. Male students' scores are unaffected by the message.

Which of the following concepts best explains the female students' lower performance?

  • In-group bias

  • Self-serving bias

  • Stereotype threat

  • The fundamental attribution error

Choose your answer