GRE Psychology Subject Test
Questions and Answers 100% Pass
Ablation - ✔✔A surgically induced brain lesion.
Absolute refractory period - ✔✔The period that follows the onset of an action potential.
During this period, a nerve impulse cannot be initiated
Absolute threshold - ✔✔The minimum of stimulus energy needed to activate a sensory
system.
Accommodation - ✔✔A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It occurs
when cognitive structures are modified because new information or new experiences do
not fit into existing cognitive structures.
Acetylcholine - ✔✔A neurotransmitter found in both central and peripheral nervous
systems linked to Alzheimer's disease and used to transmit nerve impulses to the
muscles, respectively.
Acrophobia - ✔✔A specific phobia that is an irrational fear of heights.
ACT model (Adaptive Control of Thought) - ✔✔A model that describes memory in
terms of procedural and declarative memory.
Brittie Donald, All Rights Reserved © 2025 1
,Actor-observer effect - ✔✔The tendency of actors to see observer behavior as due to
external factors (situational factors) and the tendency of observers to attribute actors'
behaviors to internal characteristics (dispositional characteristics).
Adrenaline - ✔✔A hormone that increases energy available for "fight or flight" reactions
(also known as epinephrine).
Afterimages - ✔✔A visual sensation that appears after prolonged or intense exposure to
a stimulus.
Agnosia - ✔✔Impairments in perceptual recognition.
Agoraphobia - ✔✔An irrational fear of being in places or situations where escape might
be difficult.
All-or-none law - ✔✔A law about nerve impulses stating that when depolarization
reaches the critical threshold (-50 millivolts) the neuron is going to fire, each time, every
time.
Alternate-form method - ✔✔In psychometrics, it is the method of using two or more
different forms of a test to determine the reliability of a particular test.
Altruism - ✔✔A form of helping behavior where the person's intent is to benefit
someone else at some cost to him- or herself.
Brittie Donald, All Rights Reserved © 2025 2
,Amnesia - ✔✔A dissociative disorder where individuals are unable to recall past
experience, but this inability is not due to a neurological disorder.
Analogy of inoculation - ✔✔McGuire's analogy that people can be psychologically
inoculated against the "attack" of persuasive communications by first exposing them to
a weakened attack.
Analyses of Variance (anovas) - ✔✔A statistical method to compare the means of more
than two groups by comparing the between-group variance to the within-group
variance.
Anchoring - ✔✔A cognitive term (a heuristic) that refers to the tendency of people to
make decisions based on reference points, or standards used to make judgements.
Anima (animus) - ✔✔An archetype from Jung's theory referring to the feminine
behaviors in males, and the masculine behaviors in females.
Anorexia nervosa - ✔✔An eating disorder characterized by a refusal to maintain a
minimal normal body weight.
Anterograde amnesia - ✔✔Memory loss for new information following brain injury.
Anti-social personality disorder - ✔✔A personality disorder characterized by a pattern
of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others.
Aphagia. - ✔✔An impairment in the ability to eat.
Brittie Donald, All Rights Reserved © 2025 3
, Aphasias - ✔✔Language disorders, which are associated with Broca's and Wernicke's
areas in the brain.
Apparent motion - ✔✔An illusion that occurs when two dots flashed in different
locations on a screen seconds apart are perceived as one moving dot.
Apraxia - ✔✔An impairment in the organization of voluntary action.
Archetypes - ✔✔The building blocks for the collective unconscious referred to in Jung's
theory of personality.
Assimilation - ✔✔A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It is the
process of understanding new information in relation to prior knowledge, or existing
schemata.
Association area - ✔✔Areas in the brain that integrate information from different
cortical regions
Atkinson-Shiffin model - ✔✔A model of memory that involves three memory structures
(sensory, short-term and long-term), and the processes that operate these memory
structures.
Attachment bond - ✔✔Evidence of a preference for the primary caregiver and a
wariness of strangers.
Brittie Donald, All Rights Reserved © 2025 4
Questions and Answers 100% Pass
Ablation - ✔✔A surgically induced brain lesion.
Absolute refractory period - ✔✔The period that follows the onset of an action potential.
During this period, a nerve impulse cannot be initiated
Absolute threshold - ✔✔The minimum of stimulus energy needed to activate a sensory
system.
Accommodation - ✔✔A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It occurs
when cognitive structures are modified because new information or new experiences do
not fit into existing cognitive structures.
Acetylcholine - ✔✔A neurotransmitter found in both central and peripheral nervous
systems linked to Alzheimer's disease and used to transmit nerve impulses to the
muscles, respectively.
Acrophobia - ✔✔A specific phobia that is an irrational fear of heights.
ACT model (Adaptive Control of Thought) - ✔✔A model that describes memory in
terms of procedural and declarative memory.
Brittie Donald, All Rights Reserved © 2025 1
,Actor-observer effect - ✔✔The tendency of actors to see observer behavior as due to
external factors (situational factors) and the tendency of observers to attribute actors'
behaviors to internal characteristics (dispositional characteristics).
Adrenaline - ✔✔A hormone that increases energy available for "fight or flight" reactions
(also known as epinephrine).
Afterimages - ✔✔A visual sensation that appears after prolonged or intense exposure to
a stimulus.
Agnosia - ✔✔Impairments in perceptual recognition.
Agoraphobia - ✔✔An irrational fear of being in places or situations where escape might
be difficult.
All-or-none law - ✔✔A law about nerve impulses stating that when depolarization
reaches the critical threshold (-50 millivolts) the neuron is going to fire, each time, every
time.
Alternate-form method - ✔✔In psychometrics, it is the method of using two or more
different forms of a test to determine the reliability of a particular test.
Altruism - ✔✔A form of helping behavior where the person's intent is to benefit
someone else at some cost to him- or herself.
Brittie Donald, All Rights Reserved © 2025 2
,Amnesia - ✔✔A dissociative disorder where individuals are unable to recall past
experience, but this inability is not due to a neurological disorder.
Analogy of inoculation - ✔✔McGuire's analogy that people can be psychologically
inoculated against the "attack" of persuasive communications by first exposing them to
a weakened attack.
Analyses of Variance (anovas) - ✔✔A statistical method to compare the means of more
than two groups by comparing the between-group variance to the within-group
variance.
Anchoring - ✔✔A cognitive term (a heuristic) that refers to the tendency of people to
make decisions based on reference points, or standards used to make judgements.
Anima (animus) - ✔✔An archetype from Jung's theory referring to the feminine
behaviors in males, and the masculine behaviors in females.
Anorexia nervosa - ✔✔An eating disorder characterized by a refusal to maintain a
minimal normal body weight.
Anterograde amnesia - ✔✔Memory loss for new information following brain injury.
Anti-social personality disorder - ✔✔A personality disorder characterized by a pattern
of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others.
Aphagia. - ✔✔An impairment in the ability to eat.
Brittie Donald, All Rights Reserved © 2025 3
, Aphasias - ✔✔Language disorders, which are associated with Broca's and Wernicke's
areas in the brain.
Apparent motion - ✔✔An illusion that occurs when two dots flashed in different
locations on a screen seconds apart are perceived as one moving dot.
Apraxia - ✔✔An impairment in the organization of voluntary action.
Archetypes - ✔✔The building blocks for the collective unconscious referred to in Jung's
theory of personality.
Assimilation - ✔✔A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It is the
process of understanding new information in relation to prior knowledge, or existing
schemata.
Association area - ✔✔Areas in the brain that integrate information from different
cortical regions
Atkinson-Shiffin model - ✔✔A model of memory that involves three memory structures
(sensory, short-term and long-term), and the processes that operate these memory
structures.
Attachment bond - ✔✔Evidence of a preference for the primary caregiver and a
wariness of strangers.
Brittie Donald, All Rights Reserved © 2025 4
