Psychology 101 Midterm 2 Questions & Answers | PSYCH 101 | 2026/2027 | 100+ Questions | Consciousness, Sleep, Learning, Conditioning & Memory | University of Washington

This 18-page Psychology 101 Midterm 2 Exam 2026/2027 study guide contains 100+ frequently tested questions, definitions, and provided answers covering major introductory psychology concepts associated with consciousness, sleep, learning, conditioning, and memory. The first section examines consciousness and information processing through selective and divided attention, EEG, Freudian and cognitive perspectives on consciousness, controlled and automatic processing, visual agnosia, blindsight, and priming. It then develops the biological basis of sleep through the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), circadian rhythms, melatonin, beta, alpha, theta, and delta brain waves, sleep stages, REM sleep, the basal forebrain, pontine reticular formation, adenosine, and hypocretin. Sleep psychology and altered states of consciousness receive substantial coverage. Students review the restoration and evolutionary/circadian models of sleep, memory consolidation, insomnia and stimulus-control treatment, narcolepsy, cataplexy, REM sleep behavior disorder, night terrors, sleep apnea, and the hypnagogic state. Dream theories include Freud's wish-fulfillment perspective, manifest and latent dream content, dream work, problem-solving models, cognitive-process theories, and activation-synthesis theory. This combination provides focused preparation for questions connecting biological sleep mechanisms with psychological theories of dreaming and common sleep disorders. A major portion of the exam material focuses on learning and conditioning. Classical conditioning concepts include the unconditioned stimulus and response, conditioned stimulus and response, extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus generalization, discrimination, higher-order conditioning, exposure therapy, flooding, and aversion therapy. Operant conditioning coverage includes the law of effect, reinforcement versus punishment, antecedents, positive and negative reinforcement, primary and secondary reinforcers, operant extinction, aversive punishment, response cost, shaping, chaining, stimulus control, escape and avoidance conditioning, and token economies. Reinforcement schedules are clearly differentiated through continuous and partial reinforcement and fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, and variable-interval schedules, with applied examples such as slot machines, regularly scheduled tests, and random pop quizzes. The final portion provides detailed memory and cognition review. Core processes include encoding, storage, retrieval, sensory memory, echoic and iconic stores, short-term and working memory, chunking, the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, central executive, and long-term memory. Students also review the serial-position, primacy, and recency effects; levels of processing; maintenance and elaborative rehearsal; dual-coding theory; method of loci; mnemonic devices; schemas; associative networks; and priming. Long-term memory is further divided into episodic, semantic, procedural, explicit, and implicit memory, while retrieval topics include retrieval cues, autobiographical memory, encoding specificity, context-dependent and state-dependent memory, and mood-congruent recall. The closing material addresses major explanations and patterns of forgetting, including decay theory, proactive and retroactive interference, repression, prospective memory, retrograde amnesia, and anterograde amnesia. Overall, the document is especially suited to Midterm 2 preparation because it combines concise definitions with examples that help distinguish closely related concepts such as reinforcement versus punishment, classical versus operant conditioning, explicit versus implicit memory, and proactive versus retroactive interference. Relevant students: University of Washington students taking PSYCH 101, introductory psychology students preparing for Midterm 2, undergraduate psychology students, behavioral science students, students reviewing consciousness and sleep, learners studying classical and operant conditioning, and students preparing for examinations on learning, memory, reinforcement schedules, retrieval, and forgetting. The uploaded document explicitly identifies UW Psych 101 Midterm 2, supporting the PSYCH 101 course identification; students should verify the exact campus/instructor alignment against their current syllabus. 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