AP Psychology: Perception — Drill 7

About This Drill

AP Psychology: Perception — Drill 7 is a Multiple Choice practice drill covering Unit 2: Cognition. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

AP Psychology practice questions on perception, covering top-down and bottom-up processing, monocular depth cues, size constancy, perceptual set, and research methods for studying perception. Five AP exam prep multiple-choice questions with full explanations.

Questions in This Drill

1. Aaliyah is searching for her friend in a crowded coffee shop. She scans the room and almost immediately spots him at a corner table, even though he is partially hidden behind a large plant and she can only see his shoulder and part of his jacket. Which principle best explains how Aaliyah identified her friend so quickly?
2. Researchers show participants a two-dimensional line drawing of a hallway with parallel lines that appear to converge in the distance. Two identical horizontal bars are placed in the drawing — one near the "close" end and one near the "far" end. Participants consistently report that the bar at the "far" end looks larger. Which perceptual principle most directly accounts for this finding?
3. A researcher tests whether people's cultural background influences susceptibility to the Müller-Lyer illusion. She recruits 40 college students from a single U.S. university with a similar regional background and measures the average magnitude of the illusion effect. She concludes that culture has no meaningful influence on the illusion. Which is the most serious methodological problem with her conclusion?
4. A study measured which interpretation of an ambiguous image (one that can be seen either as a rabbit or as a duck) participants perceived first after being primed with a short video. Participants were randomly assigned to watch either a nature video about birds or a nature video about mammals. The results showed that among participants who watched the bird video, 78% reported seeing "duck" first and 22% reported seeing "rabbit" first. Among participants who watched the mammal video, 24% reported seeing "duck" first and 76% reported seeing "rabbit" first. Which conclusion is best supported by the data?
5. A student who reads a difficult passage by focusing heavily on sounding out every word, without drawing on the topic or the surrounding context to interpret what she's reading, often finishes the passage unable to explain what it was about. Which of the following best explains why this approach struggles with comprehension of difficult material?