information. Scorable definitions must include the concept that sensory memory lasts a very short period
of time and all sensory information flows into sensory memory.
POINT 10
Description, Sensory Memory
Awarded if you provided an example that shows how sensory events are automatically encoded into
sensory memory for a split second without our choice or awareness. The example must include the idea
that we are not aware of encoding these sensory events and we do not choose which sensory events are
encoded in sensory memory.
Sample Essay
Psychology is a very important subject that has discovered many important things.
We all need to pay attention to psychology and psychology theories because they
matter to us and to our loved ones.
One of the most important contributions of psychology has been to identify
aspects of thinking and experiences outside of conscious awareness. What this means
is that psychology helps us figure out what we think even if we don’t really know
why we think it.
Perceptual sets are things that determine what we perceive. They are like rules
that help our brains figure out what to do with what we see, hear, etc. How this
applies to this question is that we don’t really know what these rules are, and
these perceptual set rules determine how we see the world around us even though we
aren’t aware of them.
Cognitive dissonance are things that really bother us about what we think. If we
think something bad about a friend then it’s going to bother us even if we aren’t
aware of why it’s bothering us.
Selective attention is when you pay attention to something so you remember it
better later. We all choose to pay attention to certain things and then those
things get encoded into memory a lot better. Sometimes you don’t even know why you
pay attention to something (like a loud bang or someone saying your name), but
because of selective attention you are going to remember those things better even
though you didn’t know or choose what to pay attention to.
Sensory memory is our memory for sensory things. It applies to this question
because we don’t choose what senses to pay attention to. Everything that happens
around us ends up in sensory memory at least for a little while, so that happens
outside our conscious awareness.
The fundamental attribution error is when you attribute something to someone
without being consciously aware of it. You might think they are mean or nice or
rich or poor but you don’t really choose to think that way about them. It’s just
automatic, like stereotyping.
All of these concepts and theories are very important to psychology and to
figuring out why we do what we do, even if we aren’t aware of doing them.
Sample Essay Scoring
Notice that the first two paragraphs of this (fictional) student’s essay do not score any points. This is a
good example of a student who tries to introduce the topic and provide a transition into answering the
question. These writing techniques are useful in most other contexts, but remember that answering the AP
Psychology essay question is a unique experience unlike a lot of other writing you do. Don’t worry about
writing an introductory paragraph, or easing the reader into the topic. Just dive in and answer the
question.
Also, notice that this (fictional) student answers the points out of order. This way of organizing is not
necessarily a problem because readers are trained to look for scorable points wherever they occur in a