GRE Psychology Subject Test cheat sheet

Action potential: depolarization to threshold → voltage-gated Na+ channels open → Na+ influx → repolarization via K+ efflux → hyperpolarization → refractory period.

Neurotransmitters: dopamine (reward, motor control, schizophrenia/Parkinson's), serotonin (mood, sleep, appetite), acetylcholine (muscle contraction, memory, Alzheimer's), norepinephrine (arousal, fight-or-flight), GABA (main inhibitory), glutamate (main excitatory).

Brain areas: occipital lobe (vision), temporal lobe (auditory, language comprehension Wernicke's), parietal lobe (somatosensory), frontal lobe (motor, executive, Broca's speech production), cerebellum (balance, coordination), hippocampus (memory consolidation), amygdala (emotion, fear), hypothalamus (homeostasis, endocrine), thalamus (sensory relay).

Split-brain: corpus callosum severed; left hemisphere typically language-dominant; right hemisphere spatial/visual-motor; dichotic listening and tachistoscopic tasks reveal lateralization.

Hormones: HPA axis (hypothalamus → CRH → pituitary → ACTH → adrenal cortex → cortisol); thyroid hormones regulate metabolism; gonadal hormones (testosterone, estrogen) influence development and behavior.

Genetics: heritability = proportion of phenotypic variance due to genetic variance; twin studies compare monozygotic vs. dizygotic concordance; adoption studies separate genetic from environmental effects.

Sensory systems: Weber's law (ΔI/I = constant); Fechner's law (S = k log I); signal detection theory (d' = sensitivity, β = criterion); transduction converts physical energy to neural signals.

Sleep: stages N1–N3 (slow-wave) and REM; REM associated with dreaming, muscle atonia, and memory consolidation; circadian rhythms regulated by suprachiasmatic nucleus and melatonin.

Psychopharmacology: agonists mimic or enhance neurotransmitter action; antagonists block receptors; reuptake inhibitors (e.g., SSRIs) increase synaptic neurotransmitter levels.

Memory systems: sensory (iconic ~250 ms, echoic ~2–4 s), short-term/working memory (capacity ~7±2 chunks, duration ~18–30 s without rehearsal), long-term memory (unlimited capacity, duration).

Working memory model (Baddeley): phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, central executive, episodic buffer.

Levels of processing: deep (semantic) encoding produces better retention than shallow (physical) encoding; encoding specificity principle: retrieval is best when context at encoding matches context at retrieval.

Forgetting: decay vs. interference; proactive interference (old material disrupts new), retroactive interference (new material disrupts old); serial position curve (primacy = LTM, recency = STM).

Attention: selective attention (filter theories: Broadbent early selection, Treisman attenuation, Deutsch & Deutsch late selection); divided attention limited by capacity; Stroop effect shows automatic processing interference.

Problem solving: heuristics (availability, representativeness, anchoring) vs. algorithms; functional fixedness, mental set, confirmation bias; insight vs. incremental problem solving.

Language: phonemes, morphemes, syntax, semantics, pragmatics; Broca's aphasia (production), Wernicke's aphasia (comprehension); critical period hypothesis for language acquisition.

Decision making: expected utility theory vs. prospect theory (loss aversion, framing effects); base rate neglect; conjunction fallacy.

Intelligence: Spearman's g (general factor), Cattell-Horn-Carroll (fluid vs. crystallized), Gardner's multiple intelligences, Sternberg's triarchic theory; IQ scores standardized (mean 100, SD 15).

Attribution: internal (dispositional) vs. external (situational); fundamental attribution error (overestimate dispositional, underestimate situational); actor-observer bias; self-serving bias (success internal, failure external).

Attitudes: cognitive dissonance (Festinger) - inconsistency between attitudes and behavior motivates change; elaboration likelihood model (central vs. peripheral route persuasion).

Conformity: Asch line-judgment studies - normative and informational influence; obedience: Milgram - authority, proximity, and group support affect obedience rates.

Group processes: social facilitation (improved performance on simple tasks), social loafing (reduced effort in groups), deindividuation, group polarization, groupthink (Janis).

Prejudice and discrimination: stereotypes (cognitive), prejudice (affective), discrimination (behavioral); contact hypothesis reduces prejudice under certain conditions.

Interpersonal attraction: proximity, similarity, physical attractiveness, reciprocity; Sternberg's triangular theory (intimacy, passion, commitment).

Aggression: biological (testosterone, amygdala) and social (frustration-aggression, social learning) explanations; bystander effect (diffusion of responsibility).

Social cognition: schemas, scripts, heuristics; implicit vs. explicit attitudes; stereotype threat (performance decrement when negative stereotype is salient).

Compliance techniques: foot-in-the-door (small then large request), door-in-the-face (large then small), low-ball (change terms after agreement).

Piaget stages: sensorimotor (0–2, object permanence), preoperational (2–7, egocentrism, conservation failure), concrete operational (7–11, conservation, reversibility), formal operational (11+, abstract reasoning).

Vygotsky: zone of proximal development, scaffolding, social interaction central to cognitive development; private speech internalized as thought.

Attachment: Ainsworth strange situation - secure, anxious-ambivalent, avoidant, disorganized; Harlow's contact comfort over food; Bowlby's ethological theory.

Erikson psychosocial stages: trust vs. mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs. shame (toddler), initiative vs. guilt (preschool), industry vs. inferiority (school age), identity vs. role confusion (adolescence), intimacy vs. isolation (young adult), generativity vs. stagnation (middle), integrity vs. despair (late).

Kohlberg moral development: preconventional (punishment/obedience, instrumental), conventional (interpersonal, law and order), postconventional (social contract, universal principles); Gilligan critique of gender bias.

Language development: cooing (2–3 months), babbling (6 months), one-word (12 months), telegraphic (18–24 months), overgeneralization of grammar rules.

Parenting styles (Baumrind): authoritative (high warmth, high control) associated with best outcomes; authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved.

Adolescence and aging: puberty timing effects; fluid intelligence peaks early adulthood, crystallized continues; Erikson's identity formation; dementia and Alzheimer's in late adulthood.

DSM-5 criteria: disorder requires clinically significant distress or impairment, not merely a culturally expected response; categorical vs. dimensional classification.

Anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety (persistent worry >6 months), panic disorder (recurrent unexpected attacks), phobias (specific, social), OCD (obsessions/compulsions), PTSD (trauma exposure, intrusion, avoidance, hyperarousal).

Mood disorders: major depressive disorder (≥2 weeks, 5+ symptoms including depressed mood/anhedonia), bipolar I (manic episode), bipolar II (hypomanic + depressive).

Schizophrenia: positive symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech/behavior), negative symptoms (flat affect, avolition, alogia), cognitive deficits; dopamine hypothesis; ventricular enlargement.

Personality disorders: cluster A (odd/eccentric: paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal), cluster B (dramatic: antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic), cluster C (anxious: avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive).

Therapies: psychodynamic (insight, transference), cognitive-behavioral (identify and change maladaptive thoughts/behaviors), humanistic (client-centered, unconditional positive regard), biological (medication, ECT).

Effectiveness: empirically supported treatments (ESTs); randomized controlled trials; placebo effects; therapeutic alliance as common factor.

Ethical issues: confidentiality and its limits, informed consent, dual relationships, competence; Tarasoff duty to warn.

Reliability: consistency of measurement; types - test-retest, parallel forms, split-half (Spearman-Brown correction), inter-rater; reliability coefficient ranges 0–1.

Validity: content, criterion (concurrent, predictive), construct (convergent, discriminant); reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity.

Classical test theory: observed score = true score + error; standard error of measurement (SEM = SD√(1−r)); item difficulty and discrimination (item-total correlation).

Research designs: experimental (random assignment, manipulation, control) vs. quasi-experimental vs. correlational; independent/dependent variables; confounding variables.

Statistics: central tendency (mean, median, mode), variability (range, variance, standard deviation); normal distribution (68-95-99.7 rule); z-scores, t-tests, ANOVA, chi-square, correlation coefficient (r).

Sampling: random sampling vs. random assignment; sampling bias; external validity (generalizability) vs. internal validity (causal inference).

Ethics: informed consent, debriefing, confidentiality, minimal risk, IRB approval; APA Ethical Principles (beneficence, fidelity, integrity, justice, respect).

Effect size: Cohen's d (small 0.2, medium 0.5, large 0.8); statistical significance (p < .05) does not equal practical significance; power = 1 − β.

Threats to validity: history, maturation, testing, instrumentation, regression to the mean, selection bias, attrition; demand characteristics and experimenter bias.