MCAT FINAL EXAM MANUAL 2025/2026 QUESTIONS WITH
SOLUTION GRADED A+
✔✔Representativeness heuristic - ✔✔A tendency to judge the likelihoods of an event
occurring as based on our typical mental representations of those events.
✔✔Availability heuristic - ✔✔A tendency to make judgments based on how readily
available information is in our memories.
✔✔Belief bias - ✔✔The tendency to judge arguments based on what one believes
about their conclusions rather than the use of sound logic.
✔✔Belief perseverance - ✔✔A tendency to cling to beliefs despite the presence of
contrary evidence.
✔✔Awake - ✔✔Alpha/beta (relaxed) waves, low amplitude, 8-12 Hz.
✔✔Stage 1 - ✔✔Theta waves, low amplitude, 3-7 Hz.
✔✔Stage 2 - ✔✔K-complexes/sleep spindles, moderate amplitude, 12-14Hz bursts.
✔✔Stage 3 - ✔✔Delta waves (slow wave sleep), high amplitude, 0.5-3 Hz.
✔✔REM sleep - ✔✔Sawtooth waves, bursts of quick eye movements, low skeletal
muscle movement = "paradoxical sleep"
✔✔Activation synthesis theory - ✔✔A theory that suggests that dreams are byproducts
of brain activation during REM sleep.
✔✔Dyssomnias - ✔✔Abnormalities in the amount, quality, or timing of sleep.
✔✔Parasomnias - ✔✔Abnormal behaviors that occur during sleep, usually occurring
during Stage 3.
✔✔Social influence theory - ✔✔A theory that suggests that people do and report what is
expected of them.
✔✔Yerkes-Dodson Law - ✔✔A law that states that the correlation between performance
and emotional arousal is U-shaped.
✔✔James-Lange theory - ✔✔Stimulus → physical condition → emotion
✔✔Cannon-Bard Theory - ✔✔Stimulus → emotion + physical condition (independent)
,✔✔Schacter-Singer Theory - ✔✔Stimulus → physical response → cognitive appraisal to
label the emotion
✔✔Lazarus Theory - ✔✔Stimulus → cognitive appraisal to label the emotion → physical
response
✔✔Nativism (universalism) - ✔✔Humans have a language acquisition device (LAD) that
allows the mind to gain mastery of language in early childhood - humans have an innate
ability to learn language; thought determines language.
✔✔Social interactionism - ✔✔Human social processes play a major role in language
acquisition in conjunction with operant conditioning - Vygotsky
✔✔Linguistic relativism - ✔✔(Strong) Cognition and perception are determined by the
language one speaks.
(Weak) Linguistic structure *influences* cognition and perception.
✔✔Nonassociative learning - ✔✔A type of learning in which an organism is repeatedly
exposed to one type of stimulus.
✔✔Habituation - ✔✔A decrease in responsiveness to a stimulus due to repeated
exposure.
✔✔Dishabituation - ✔✔A process that occurs when a previously habituated stimulus is
removed: response recovery occurs.
✔✔Sensitization - ✔✔An increase in responsiveness to a stimulus due to either
repeated application of a stimulus or a particularly aversive stimulus.
✔✔Associative learning - ✔✔A process of learning in which one event, object, or action
is directly connected with another.
✔✔Acquisition - ✔✔The process of learning the conditioned response.
✔✔Generalization - ✔✔The process by which stimuli other than the original conditioned
stimulus elicit the conditioned response.
✔✔Shaping - ✔✔Reinforcing of smaller intermediate behaviors necessary to achieve
the final desired behavior.
✔✔Escape - ✔✔An individual learns how to get away from an aversive stimulus by
engaging in a particular behavior.
, ✔✔Avoidance - ✔✔Operant conditioning: a person performs a behavior to ensure an
aversive stimulus is not presented.
✔✔Latent learning - ✔✔Something is learned but not expressed as an observable
behavior until it is required.
✔✔Consolidation - ✔✔The process by which short term memory is converted into long-
term memory.
✔✔Modeling - ✔✔Imitation of an observed behavior.
✔✔Elaboration likelihood model - ✔✔A model of persuasion that explains when people
will be influenced by speech content versus other superficial characteristics.
✔✔Central route - ✔✔People are persuaded by the content of an argument.
✔✔Peripheral route - ✔✔People focus on superficial or secondary characteristics of the
speech or orator.
✔✔Social cognitive theory - ✔✔A theory of behavior change that emphasizes the
interactions between people and their social environment as a basis for behavior.
✔✔Reciprocal determinism - ✔✔The interaction between a person's behavior, personal
factors, and environment - behavior influences and is influenced by these factors.
✔✔Secure attachment - ✔✔Children who will exhibit some distress when caregiver
leaves, but upon return is easily consoled.
✔✔Insecure attachment - ✔✔Children who will exhibit significant distress upon
caregiver departure OR demonstrate indifference to departure and return.
✔✔Serial position effect - ✔✔An individual is more likely to recall the first and last items
on a list (primacy and recency effect)
✔✔Dual coding hypothesis - ✔✔It is easier to remember words with associated images
than with either words or images alone.
✔✔Method of loci - ✔✔Imagining moving through a familiar place leaving a visual
representation of a topic to be remembered.
✔✔Self-reference effect - ✔✔It is easier to remember things that are personally
relevant.
SOLUTION GRADED A+
✔✔Representativeness heuristic - ✔✔A tendency to judge the likelihoods of an event
occurring as based on our typical mental representations of those events.
✔✔Availability heuristic - ✔✔A tendency to make judgments based on how readily
available information is in our memories.
✔✔Belief bias - ✔✔The tendency to judge arguments based on what one believes
about their conclusions rather than the use of sound logic.
✔✔Belief perseverance - ✔✔A tendency to cling to beliefs despite the presence of
contrary evidence.
✔✔Awake - ✔✔Alpha/beta (relaxed) waves, low amplitude, 8-12 Hz.
✔✔Stage 1 - ✔✔Theta waves, low amplitude, 3-7 Hz.
✔✔Stage 2 - ✔✔K-complexes/sleep spindles, moderate amplitude, 12-14Hz bursts.
✔✔Stage 3 - ✔✔Delta waves (slow wave sleep), high amplitude, 0.5-3 Hz.
✔✔REM sleep - ✔✔Sawtooth waves, bursts of quick eye movements, low skeletal
muscle movement = "paradoxical sleep"
✔✔Activation synthesis theory - ✔✔A theory that suggests that dreams are byproducts
of brain activation during REM sleep.
✔✔Dyssomnias - ✔✔Abnormalities in the amount, quality, or timing of sleep.
✔✔Parasomnias - ✔✔Abnormal behaviors that occur during sleep, usually occurring
during Stage 3.
✔✔Social influence theory - ✔✔A theory that suggests that people do and report what is
expected of them.
✔✔Yerkes-Dodson Law - ✔✔A law that states that the correlation between performance
and emotional arousal is U-shaped.
✔✔James-Lange theory - ✔✔Stimulus → physical condition → emotion
✔✔Cannon-Bard Theory - ✔✔Stimulus → emotion + physical condition (independent)
,✔✔Schacter-Singer Theory - ✔✔Stimulus → physical response → cognitive appraisal to
label the emotion
✔✔Lazarus Theory - ✔✔Stimulus → cognitive appraisal to label the emotion → physical
response
✔✔Nativism (universalism) - ✔✔Humans have a language acquisition device (LAD) that
allows the mind to gain mastery of language in early childhood - humans have an innate
ability to learn language; thought determines language.
✔✔Social interactionism - ✔✔Human social processes play a major role in language
acquisition in conjunction with operant conditioning - Vygotsky
✔✔Linguistic relativism - ✔✔(Strong) Cognition and perception are determined by the
language one speaks.
(Weak) Linguistic structure *influences* cognition and perception.
✔✔Nonassociative learning - ✔✔A type of learning in which an organism is repeatedly
exposed to one type of stimulus.
✔✔Habituation - ✔✔A decrease in responsiveness to a stimulus due to repeated
exposure.
✔✔Dishabituation - ✔✔A process that occurs when a previously habituated stimulus is
removed: response recovery occurs.
✔✔Sensitization - ✔✔An increase in responsiveness to a stimulus due to either
repeated application of a stimulus or a particularly aversive stimulus.
✔✔Associative learning - ✔✔A process of learning in which one event, object, or action
is directly connected with another.
✔✔Acquisition - ✔✔The process of learning the conditioned response.
✔✔Generalization - ✔✔The process by which stimuli other than the original conditioned
stimulus elicit the conditioned response.
✔✔Shaping - ✔✔Reinforcing of smaller intermediate behaviors necessary to achieve
the final desired behavior.
✔✔Escape - ✔✔An individual learns how to get away from an aversive stimulus by
engaging in a particular behavior.
, ✔✔Avoidance - ✔✔Operant conditioning: a person performs a behavior to ensure an
aversive stimulus is not presented.
✔✔Latent learning - ✔✔Something is learned but not expressed as an observable
behavior until it is required.
✔✔Consolidation - ✔✔The process by which short term memory is converted into long-
term memory.
✔✔Modeling - ✔✔Imitation of an observed behavior.
✔✔Elaboration likelihood model - ✔✔A model of persuasion that explains when people
will be influenced by speech content versus other superficial characteristics.
✔✔Central route - ✔✔People are persuaded by the content of an argument.
✔✔Peripheral route - ✔✔People focus on superficial or secondary characteristics of the
speech or orator.
✔✔Social cognitive theory - ✔✔A theory of behavior change that emphasizes the
interactions between people and their social environment as a basis for behavior.
✔✔Reciprocal determinism - ✔✔The interaction between a person's behavior, personal
factors, and environment - behavior influences and is influenced by these factors.
✔✔Secure attachment - ✔✔Children who will exhibit some distress when caregiver
leaves, but upon return is easily consoled.
✔✔Insecure attachment - ✔✔Children who will exhibit significant distress upon
caregiver departure OR demonstrate indifference to departure and return.
✔✔Serial position effect - ✔✔An individual is more likely to recall the first and last items
on a list (primacy and recency effect)
✔✔Dual coding hypothesis - ✔✔It is easier to remember words with associated images
than with either words or images alone.
✔✔Method of loci - ✔✔Imagining moving through a familiar place leaving a visual
representation of a topic to be remembered.
✔✔Self-reference effect - ✔✔It is easier to remember things that are personally
relevant.
