Study guide · 6 units · 33 things to learn
AP Psychology biological bases of behavior study guide
Unit 1 of AP Psychology, Biological Bases of Behavior, is 15 to 25 percent of the exam. This guide follows its topics in order, and adds the brain side of memory from Unit 2.
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Work through the units in order. Read each topic, open each part in 3D, then take the unit's quiz: everything you answer comes back in your daily review, right before you would forget it. Ticks show what you have done on this device.
1. 1.2 Overview of the nervous system
Quiz this unit in 3DThe central and peripheral nervous systems, and the autonomic (sympathetic and parasympathetic) and somatic nervous systems.
2. 1.3 The neuron and neural firing
Quiz this unit in 3DNeurons and glial cells, the reflex arc, the action potential, the neurotransmitters on the exam, hormones, and how psychoactive drugs act on synapses.
- Neurons and nerve signalsTopic · How a nerve cell is built, and how it fires a signal.
- NeurotransmittersTopic · The brain's chemical messengers: dopamine, serotonin, GABA and more.
- Spinal cordBrain part · The body's main information highway, and home to lightning-fast reflexes.
- Hormones and the brain: the hypothalamus and pituitaryTopic · How the hypothalamus and pituitary gland steer the body with hormones.
- How drugs affect the brainTopic · How drugs act on synapses, the reward pathway, and addiction.
3. 1.4 The brain
Quiz this unit in 3DThe brainstem, the reward center, the cerebellum, the limbic system and corpus callosum, the lobes, split-brain research, plasticity and the methods used to study the brain.
- The big pictureLesson in 3D · Cerebrum, cerebellum and brainstem.
- BrainstemBrain part · The stalk connecting brain and body, running breathing, heartbeat and wakefulness.
- Medulla oblongataBrain part · Your life-support center: breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure and swallowing on autopilot.
- Nucleus accumbensBrain part · The brain's reward hotspot, turning "I like that" into "I want more".
- CerebellumBrain part · The "little brain" that holds most of your neurons and makes every move smooth.
- ThalamusBrain part · The brain's grand central station: nearly every sense stops here on its way up.
- HypothalamusBrain part · An almond-sized control center for temperature, hunger, thirst, sleep and hormones.
- Pituitary glandBrain part · The pea-sized "master gland" that sends hormone orders to the whole body.
- HippocampusBrain part · The seahorse-shaped memory maker that turns your day into lasting memories.
- AmygdalaBrain part · The almond-shaped alarm that spots danger and gives memories their emotional punch.
- Lobes of the brainTopic · The four lobes of each hemisphere, and what each one does.
- Primary motor cortexBrain part · Your brain's movement keyboard: a body map that commands every muscle you move on purpose.
- Primary somatosensory cortexBrain part · Your touch map: every patch of skin has its own spot on this strip.
- Prefrontal cortexBrain part · The front-most part of your brain, where you plan, focus and keep yourself in check.
- Left brain and right brainTopic · What split-brain studies really show, and the left-brain myth.
- Neuroplasticity: how the brain rewires itselfTopic · How learning, growing up and injury rewire the brain.
- How scientists study the brainTopic · MRI, fMRI, EEG and ERPs, PET, lesions, case studies and post-mortems, compared.
4. 1.5 Sleep
Quiz this unit in 3DThe circadian rhythm, the stages of sleep and their EEG patterns, theories of dreaming and of why we sleep, and the sleep disorders on the exam.
5. 1.6 Sensation
Quiz this unit in 3DHow the eye, the ear and the skin turn light, sound, touch and pain into signals, and where those signals go in the brain.
- SeeingLesson in 3D · From the eye to the back of the brain.
- The visual pathway: from the eye to the brainTopic · From the eye to the visual cortex, and what damage on the way does.
- Primary visual cortexBrain part · V1: the first cortical stop for sight, a precise map of what your eyes see.
- Hearing and balanceLesson in 3D · From the inner ear to the cortex.
- Primary auditory cortexBrain part · The first cortical stop for sound, laid out by pitch like piano keys.
- Touch, pain and temperature: the sensory pathwaysTopic · How touch, pain and temperature travel up the spinal cord to the sensory strip.
6. 2.3 to 2.7 Memory
Quiz this unit in 3DKinds of memory, long-term potentiation, encoding, storage, retrieval and forgetting, and the brain structures behind them.
Tips for studying
- The exam asks you to apply ideas to a scenario: practice saying which structure a behavior depends on, and what would change if it were damaged.
- Learn the exact lists the course names: eight neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, glutamate, GABA, endorphins, substance P, acetylcholine) and five hormones (adrenaline, leptin, ghrelin, melatonin, oxytocin).
- Retrieval practice (the testing effect in topic 2.6) is the best way to study for this very exam. Take the quiz at the end of each unit.
Built from the official outline
This guide follows these official pages. Check them for the latest version of what your exam or class covers.
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