AP PSYCHOLOGY Scoring Guide

Unit 1 Progress Check: FRQ

Question Instructions:

Your response to the question should be provided in four parts: A, B, C, and D. Write the response to each part of the
question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology in your response.

Using the source provided, respond to the following questions.

A. Identify the research method used in the study.

B. Describe the meaning of the difference in the means for the percent correct for the spoken syllable identification
task and the timbre identification task.

C. Propose a claim about the extent to which the research findings may or may not be generalizable.

D. Propose a claim about how the research findings support or refute the concept of contralateral hemispheric
organization.

Source

Introduction

In split-brain patients, sound presented in the left ear is processed by the right hemisphere while sound presented in the
right ear is processed by the left hemisphere. Research with split-brain patients indicates that the processing of music is
done more by the right hemisphere of the brain while language is processed more by the left hemisphere. Some research
with split-brain patients also indicates that the processing of music can help with the processing of language, a
phenomenon called the tonal function effect. This study explores whether this effect can be found in healthy listeners.

Participants

Right-handed college students with less than 3 years of music training were used for this study. None of the participants
had any hearing impairments. The study included 48 participants (25 women; 23 men) with an average age of 21 years
(standard deviation = 3.67).

Method

Researchers used a within-subjects design for this study. A within-subjects design means that each participant is observed
in every condition of the study and therefore can be compared directly to themselves. This procedure serves the same
purpose as random assignment. Participants were exposed to two different types of sounds at a safe decibel[1] range, one in
each ear, and asked to correctly provide a specific detail about one of the sounds as they listened.

Spoken consonant-vowel syllables were the first type of sound. There were 12 sequences of 8 syllables, with the eighth
syllable of each sequence being either /di/ or /du/. Musical chords were the second type of sound. There were 12
sequences of 8 chords, with the eighth chord of each sequence being called either Timbre A or Timbre B[2]. Participants
were asked to identify either the last spoken syllable (/di/ or /du/) or the last chord (Timbre A or Timbre B). Timbre A was
a chord that was “tonal,” meaning it was what a person would expect to come based on the previous chords in the
sequence. Timbre B was a chord that was “subdominant,” meaning it would not be a chord a person would expect based
on the previous chords in the sequence. The participants practiced identifying the syllables and chords prior to the start of
the study. They had to identify the correct sound with 92% accuracy before moving on.

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 Scoring Guide

Unit 1 Progress Check: FRQ

Participants completed 96 trials for the study. The breakdown of the ways the sounds were presented in each ear is
presented in the table below.

Timbre A Timbre B
/di/ 48 – left ear 48 – right ear
/du/ 48 – right ear 48 – left ear

The participants were told which sound to identify (syllable vs. chord) about halfway through the playing of the sounds in
both ears.

Results and Discussion

Researchers hypothesized that “the tonal function effect would be stronger when musical sequences were presented to the
left ear and speech sequences were presented to the right ear.”

Overall, participants were, on average, 97% accurate for spoken syllable identification and 86% accurate for timbre
identification. Participants had significantly faster reaction times when identifying syllables presented to the right ear
when the music presented in the left ear ended in a “tonal” chord instead of a “subdominant” chord, confirming the
hypothesis.

Adapted from Neurophysiology.

Hoch, L., & Tillmann, B. (2010). Laterality effects for musical structure processing: A dichotic listening study. Neurophysiology, 24(5). 661-666.

1 Decibels measure how loud a sound is.

2 Timbre, or the characteristic of a sound, allows the listener to distinguish different sounds from each other.

1. Respond to all parts of the question.

A. Identify the research method used in the study.

0 1

Accurately identifies the research method used in the study

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response accurately identifies the research method used in the study as an experiment.

Examples that earn 1 point:

• The research method used is an experiment.

B. Describe the meaning of the difference in the means for the percent correct for the spoken syllable identification

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Unit 1 Progress Check: FRQ

task and the timbre identification task.

0 1

Accurately describes the identified statistic in relation to the study

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response accurately describes the meaning of the difference in the means for the percent correct for the
spoken syllable identification task and the timbre identification task in relation to the study.

Examples that earn 1 point include the following:

• The difference in means shows that the syllable identification task is easier to identify than the timbre
identification task.

• More participants identified the syllable identification task correct than they did for the timbre identification
task.

C. Propose a claim about the extent to which the research findings may or may not be generalizable.

If the response asserts the study is “partly” generalizable or asserts the study is both generalizable and not generalizable,
the student’s evidence must support their assertion by showing ways the study is both generalizable and not generalizable
to earn 1 point.

0 1

Proposes a claim about the extent to which the study is generalizable.

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response proposes a claim about generalizability that references a population (the “larger population” or a
population relevant to the study’s participants.

Examples that earn 1 point include the following:

• The study is generalizable to more people in a population because they used healthy listeners instead of just
split-brain patients.

• The study is not generalizable to a wide population of people.

D. Propose a claim about how the research findings support or refute the concept of contralateral hemispheric
organization.

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Unit 1 Progress Check: FRQ

0 1

Proposes a claim about how the psychological concept or hypothesis is supported or refuted by the research findings.

Responses that earn 1 point:

The response proposes that the concept of contralateral hemispheric organization is supported or refuted by the research
findings in the study.

Examples that earn 1 point include the following:

• The study supports the concept of contralateral hemispheric organization.

• The study showed that contralateral hemispheric organization occurs in healthy people.

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Unit 1 Progress Check: FRQ

Question Instructions:

Your response to the question should be provided in four parts: A, B, C, and D. Write the response to each part of the
question in complete sentences. Use appropriate psychological terminology in your response.

Using the source provided, respond to the following questions.

A. Identify the research method used in the study.

B. State the operational definition of addiction.

C. Describe the meaning of the percentages presented in the “hourly wage of those who are employed” category of
demographic data.

D. Identify at least one ethical guideline applied by the researchers.

Source

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to identify factors that make a substance abuse recovery program successful. Researchers
identified a long-term program that provided housing, life-skills training, and several types of counseling for women with
a history of trauma for this study.

Participants

Thirty-nine women who were previous residents of the long-term recovery program participated in group interviews about
their experiences in and perceptions of the program. All participants gave informed consent to participate, and the
research was approved by a local university’s Institutional Review Board. Demographic information about the participants
is given in the table.

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Unit 1 Progress Check: FRQ

Variable Number of Participants Percent of Participants

Age
29 or less 10 26.3%
30 to 49 12 31.6%
50 or older 16 42.1%
Race/ethnicity
African American 35 89.7%
Mixed Race 3 7.7%
White 1 2.6%
Employment: “Are you currently employed?”
Yes 28 71.8%
No 11 28.2%
Hourly wage of those who are employed
$10.00-$12.99/hour 12 54.5%
$13.00-$15.99/hour 6 27.3%
$16.00 and higher/hour 4 18.2%
Number of children
1 to 3 23 69.9%
4 to 8 11 30.6%

Method

The recovery program viewed “recovery” as focusing on reducing the harm caused to an individual’s health and well-
being by the misuse of substances. This view of recovery focuses on social causes of substance use and abuse, such as
poverty, physical or emotional abuse in one’s home, or homelessness, and teaching people how to deal with those
stressors through more healthful ways of thinking and behaving. The women participated in four group interviews over a
six-month period that were recorded and transcribed word-for-word. A team of three researchers analyzed the recordings
and transcripts. Researchers developed a code manual that “organized the data for accurate interpretation” across all three
researchers. Researchers first developed a list of codes that corresponded to common aspects of successful recovery
programs. Then, as the responses were read, the researchers would categorize each response with an existing code.
Researchers would add a new code for each new topic the participants brought up in their responses.

Results and Discussion

Four major themes for successful recovery programs emerged from the participants’ responses based on the most
frequently occurring codes:

Knowledge of addiction as a disease – Participants shared that they did not often realize that their substance use could be
classified as an addiction. The researchers coded participant responses that referenced overuse or “abusive” use of

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Unit 1 Progress Check: FRQ

substances as indications of addiction.

Importance of social support and support groups – Participants shared the importance of three main kinds of social
support: 1) family and friend support; 2) organized support groups, and 3) support from other participants in the recovery
program. Attending support groups while living in the recovery program helped women develop positive support and
broke down barriers to recovery like lack of transportation, childcare, or accountability.

Peace of mind that comes from a new lifestyle – Participants shared that while their lives were not stress-free, they felt a
sense of peace by not using substances. The participants reported that being in the program taught them ways to
reconsider their responses to stress more effectively, leading to a sense of peace instead of turmoil.

Desire to maintain recovery – Many participants reported that they wanted to maintain their new substance-free lifestyles.
One participant reported that “I’m going to do whatever it is I have to do to make sure that we [she and her child] don’t
ever have to go back to that [being homeless and abusing substances].”

After categorizing the responses from the participants into these four categories, the researchers believe that the
participants’ responses show that the program had a positive impact on the participants’ recovery. The researchers
recommend that programs follow a similar model of recovery to improve outcomes for women experiencing substance
use disorders.

Adapted from Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Krueger, E., Deal, E., Lopez. A.A., Dressel, A.E., Del Carmen Graf, M., Schmitt, M., Hawkins, M., Pittman, B., Kako, P., & Mkandawire-Valhmu, L. (2022). Successful substance use

disorder recovery in transitional housing: Perspectives from African American women. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 30(5). 714-724.

2. Respond to all parts of the question.

A. Identify the research method used in the study.

0 1

Accurately identifies the research method used in the study

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response accurately identifies the research method used in the study as a case study.

Examples that earn 1 point include the following:

• The research method used is a case study.

B. State the operational definition of addiction.

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Unit 1 Progress Check: FRQ

0 1

States a measurable or quantifiable definition of the identified variable as used in the study

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response states the operational definition of addiction.

Examples that earn 1 point:

• The researchers operationally define “addiction” as the participants’ responses that refer to misusing
substances in their lives.

• The operational definition of addiction is when the participants described their substance use as “abusive.”

C. Describe the meaning of the percentages presented in the “hourly wage of those who are employed” category of
demographic data.

0 1

Accurately describes the identified statistic in relation to the study

Responses that earn 1 point:

• The response accurately describes the meaning of the percentages presented in the “hourly wage of those who are
employed” category of demographic data in relation to the study.

Examples that earn 1 point include the following:

• The hourly wages percentages show that most of the women are making under $16 an hour.

• The wages show that the majority of women are earning under $12.99 an hour.

D. Identify at least one ethical guideline applied by the researchers.

0 1

Accurately identifies at least one ethical guideline applied by researchers in the study

Responses that earn 1 point:

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Unit 1 Progress Check: FRQ

• The response identifies that the researchers used informed consent.

• The response identifies that the researchers received approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Examples that earn 1 point include the following:

• The researchers got informed consent from all the participants.

• The researchers got approval from the IRB before conducting the study.

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