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Unit 3: Development and Learning

9 dot points across 9 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do we learn associations between stimuli, and what processes govern classical conditioning?

Topic 3.7 Classical Conditioning: explain classical conditioning, including the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli and responses, acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.7, covering Pavlov's classical conditioning, the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli and responses, acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination, higher-order conditioning, and applications such as the Little Albert study and taste aversion.
12 min answer →

How does thinking change from infancy through old age, and what theories explain it?

Topic 3.4 Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan: explain Piaget's stages of cognitive development, Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and the zone of proximal development, and the changes in cognition during adulthood and aging.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.4, covering Piaget's four stages of cognitive development (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational) with object permanence, egocentrism, and conservation, plus Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and scaffolding, and changes in fluid and crystallized intelligence with aging.
12 min answer →

How do children acquire language, and what explains the universal sequence of language milestones?

Topic 3.5 Communication and Language Development: describe the stages and milestones of language acquisition and explain the major theories of language development, including the role of a critical period.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.5, covering the universal sequence of language milestones (cooing, babbling, one-word and two-word telegraphic speech), the building blocks of language (phonemes, morphemes, grammar), the critical period for language, and the nativist, learning, and interactionist theories of language acquisition.
10 min answer →

How do psychologists distinguish sex, gender, and sexual orientation, and how do they develop?

Topic 3.3 Gender and Sexual Orientation: distinguish sex from gender, explain gender identity, gender roles, and gender typing, and describe the biological and environmental influences on gender and sexual orientation.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.3, distinguishing sex from gender, explaining gender identity, gender roles, gender typing, gender schema theory, and the social and biological influences on gender, and covering sexual orientation as a stable, biologically influenced trait.
10 min answer →

How do consequences shape voluntary behavior, and how do reinforcement and punishment work?

Topic 3.8 Operant Conditioning: explain operant conditioning, including positive and negative reinforcement and punishment, primary and secondary reinforcers, shaping, and the schedules of reinforcement.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.8, covering Thorndike's law of effect and Skinner's operant conditioning, positive and negative reinforcement, positive and negative punishment, primary and secondary reinforcers, shaping, and the four schedules of reinforcement and their response patterns.
12 min answer →

How does the body and its capacities change from conception through late adulthood?

Topic 3.2 Physical Development Across the Lifespan: describe prenatal development and teratogens, infant reflexes and motor milestones, the changes of puberty and adolescence, and the physical and sensory changes of adulthood and aging.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.2, covering prenatal stages and teratogens, newborn reflexes and motor milestones, the physical changes of puberty and adolescence, and the physical and cognitive changes of adulthood including menopause and the distinction between fluid and crystallized abilities.
11 min answer →

How do observation, cognition, and biology shape learning beyond simple conditioning?

Topic 3.9 Social, Cognitive, and Neurological Factors in Learning: explain observational learning and modeling, cognitive influences such as latent and insight learning, and biological factors such as biological preparedness and instinctive drift.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.9, covering Bandura's observational learning and modeling, the role of mirror neurons, cognitive factors such as latent learning and cognitive maps and insight learning, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and biological constraints like biological preparedness, taste aversion, and instinctive drift.
11 min answer →

How do attachment, parenting, identity, and moral reasoning develop across the lifespan?

Topic 3.6 Social-Emotional Development Across the Lifespan: explain attachment styles, parenting styles, temperament, Erikson's psychosocial stages, Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning, and ecological systems theory.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.6, covering Harlow's and Ainsworth's work on attachment styles, the parenting styles, temperament, Erikson's eight psychosocial stages, Kohlberg's preconventional, conventional, and postconventional moral reasoning, and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory.
13 min answer →

What questions and research methods do developmental psychologists use to study change across the lifespan?

Topic 3.1 Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology: explain the recurring themes of development (stability and change, nature and nurture, continuity and stages) and the research methods (cross-sectional and longitudinal) used to study them.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.1, covering the three big themes of developmental psychology (stability versus change, nature versus nurture, continuity versus discontinuity or stages) and the cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs used to study development across the lifespan.
10 min answer →