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Memory Systems and Processes
A free GRE Psychology note on encoding, storage, and retrieval, the Atkinson-Shiffrin stage model, working memory, proactive and retroactive interference, the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, and distributed practice.
- Name the three memory processes — encoding, storage, retrieval — and locate a described failure at the right process.
- Trace information through the Atkinson-Shiffrin stages and contrast that account with the Baddeley-Hitch working memory model.
- Classify interference scenarios as proactive or retroactive from the timeline of what was learned when.
Formulas covered: Memory process pipeline · Atkinson-Shiffrin stage model · Interference direction map
Read the Memory Systems and Processes noteResearch Methods and Validity
A free GRE Psychology note on experimental versus correlational designs, random assignment, the correlation coefficient, confounding variables, and the reliability and validity of psychological measures.
- Classify a described study as experimental or correlational and state what conclusions that design licenses.
- Interpret a correlation coefficient's sign and magnitude, and explain why correlation does not establish causation.
- Propose a plausible confounding variable for a reported correlation and say how random assignment addresses it.
Formulas covered: Correlation coefficient range · Causal-inference checklist · Reliability type map
Read the Research Methods and Validity noteClassical and Operant Conditioning
A free GRE Psychology note on Pavlovian terminology (UCS, UCR, CS, CR), extinction and generalization, reinforcement and punishment, shaping, the four reinforcement schedules, and how observational learning differs.
- Label the UCS, UCR, neutral stimulus, CS, and CR in a novel conditioning scenario.
- Distinguish extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus generalization, and stimulus discrimination.
- Classify consequences into the four operant outcomes by crossing add/remove with increase/decrease.
Formulas covered: Classical conditioning pairing schema · Operant outcome quadrant map · Reinforcement schedule notation
Read the Classical and Operant Conditioning noteNeurons, Neurotransmission, and the Nervous System
A free GRE Psychology note on resting and action potentials, the all-or-none law, synaptic transmission, agonists and antagonists, the major neurotransmitters, the divisions of the nervous system, and how the endocrine system differs.
- Trace one impulse from resting potential through threshold, depolarization, and repolarization, and say what the all-or-none law does and does not fix.
- Describe synaptic transmission end to end, including reuptake and enzymatic degradation, and classify a described drug as an agonist or an antagonist.
- Place a described structure or reflex in the correct division of the nervous system: central or peripheral, somatic or autonomic, sympathetic or parasympathetic.
Formulas covered: Action potential sequence · Intensity coding under the all-or-none law · Nervous system division tree · Neural versus hormonal signaling
Read the Neurons, Neurotransmission, and the Nervous System noteLifespan Development: Theories and Stages
A free GRE Psychology note on Piaget's cognitive stages, Erikson's psychosocial crises, Kohlberg's moral levels, Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, attachment styles, parenting styles, and cross-sectional versus longitudinal designs.
- Assign a described child behavior to the correct Piagetian stage and name the specific construct — object permanence, egocentrism, centration, conservation, or abstract reasoning — that the behavior demonstrates.
- Match an age or life challenge to Erikson's psychosocial crisis for that period and state the two poles of the crisis.
- Score a moral justification at Kohlberg's preconventional, conventional, or postconventional level from the reasoning given rather than the action chosen.
Formulas covered: Piagetian stage ladder · Kohlberg level test · Parenting style grid · Developmental design trade-off
Read the Lifespan Development: Theories and Stages noteSocial Influence, Attribution, and Persuasion
A free GRE Psychology note on the fundamental attribution error, actor-observer and self-serving biases, conformity and obedience, groupthink and social loafing, cognitive dissonance, the elaboration likelihood model, and the bystander effect.
- Distinguish dispositional from situational attributions and identify which attribution bias a described explanation illustrates.
- Predict when a persuasive appeal should target the central rather than the peripheral route, and explain the prediction from audience motivation.
- Use cognitive dissonance to predict the direction of attitude change after a person has already acted against an attitude.
Formulas covered: Attribution bias map · Elaboration likelihood routes · Influence terminology test · Presence-of-others effects
Read the Social Influence, Attribution, and Persuasion notePsychological Disorders and Their Treatment
A free GRE Psychology note on how disorders are defined and classified, the diathesis-stress model, the major diagnostic categories including positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and the main families of psychotherapy and biomedical treatment.
- Apply the dysfunction, distress, and deviance criteria to decide whether a described pattern would be treated as a disorder, and explain why culture is part of the judgment.
- State what the DSM does and does not do, and describe the role of specified diagnostic criteria and comorbidity in classification.
- Use the diathesis-stress model to explain why two people with the same genetic risk can have different outcomes.
Formulas covered: Disorder screen · Diathesis-stress equation · Positive versus negative symptom test · Therapy family map
Read the Psychological Disorders and Their Treatment noteHistory and Schools of Psychology
A free GRE Psychology note on structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology, behaviorism, humanism, and the cognitive revolution, with the figures, dates, and defining commitments each school is identified by.
- Name the school of psychology described by a stated methodological commitment, and identify the figure most associated with it.
- Explain what structuralism and functionalism shared and where they diverged, and why introspection lost credibility as a method.
- State what behaviorism deliberately excluded and describe the objections that made the cognitive revolution possible.
Formulas covered: School identification test · Founding chronology · Reaction pairs
Read the History and Schools of Psychology noteBiological Bases of Behaviour: Domain Guide
The whole biological domain of the GRE Psychology Test in one place: the all-or-none neuron, transmitter-by-receptor logic, the structure-to-function map of the brain, the two control systems, sleep architecture, and the psychophysics of sensation.
- Trace a signal from dendrite to synapse and say what each stage contributes, including why a strong stimulus changes firing rate rather than spike size.
- Classify a described drug as an agonist or an antagonist from what it does to the transmitter's net effect, not from whether the word 'block' appears.
- Name the deficit that follows damage to each major structure — hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum, Broca's area, Wernicke's area, hypothalamus — and read a case description backwards to the structure.
Formulas covered: Action potential sequence · Agonist and antagonist decision rule · Nervous system branching · Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal cascade · Weber's law · Signal detection outcomes · Sleep architecture
Read the Biological Bases of Behaviour: Domain Guide noteCognitive Psychology: Domain Guide
The cognitive domain of the GRE Psychology Test end to end: the stage model of memory and how it is forgotten, classical and operant learning with their schedules, selective attention, perceptual organisation, language milestones, and the heuristics that bias judgement.
- Assign each memory store its capacity, duration, and code, and locate a described failure in encoding, storage, or retrieval.
- Label every element of a classical conditioning scenario by role, including scenarios where the same event changes role between two descriptions.
- Fill the reinforcement–punishment square from a described consequence and predict the response pattern each schedule produces.
Formulas covered: Memory store parameters · Classical conditioning roles · Reinforcement and punishment square · Reinforcement schedules and their signatures · Interference direction · Serial position decomposition
Read the Cognitive Psychology: Domain Guide noteDevelopmental Psychology: Domain Guide
The developmental domain of the GRE Psychology Test in one place: the stage theories and what each stage is defined by, attachment and parenting, the moral reasoning ladder, and the design questions — cohort, attrition, sequential — that decide what a developmental finding can claim.
- Place a described behaviour in the correct Piagetian stage using the achievement and the limitation that define it, rather than by the child's stated age.
- Recite Erikson's eight crises in order and match a described conflict to the right one.
- Score a moral judgement by the reasoning offered rather than by the action chosen, and place it at the correct Kohlberg level.
Formulas covered: Piaget's stages by achievement and limitation · Erikson's eight crises in order · Kohlberg scoring rule · Attachment classification at reunion · Parenting styles by two dimensions · Developmental design threats
Read the Developmental Psychology: Domain Guide noteSocial Psychology, Motivation, and Emotion: Domain Guide
The social domain of the GRE Psychology Test in one place: attribution and its biases, dissonance and persuasion, conformity and obedience, group processes and bystander intervention, and the competing theories of motivation and emotion.
- Apply Kelley's covariation dimensions — consensus, distinctiveness, consistency — to decide whether a described behaviour points to the person, the stimulus, or the circumstances.
- Predict the direction and size of dissonance-driven attitude change from the size of the external justification offered.
- Distinguish normative from informational influence in a described conformity scenario, and name the variables that raise or lower conformity.
Formulas covered: Kelley's covariation rule · Dissonance magnitude rule · Influence type diagnostic · Group effect selector · Bystander decision chain · Emotion theories by ordering · Yerkes–Dodson relation
Read the Social Psychology, Motivation, and Emotion: Domain Guide noteClinical and Personality Psychology: Domain Guide
The clinical domain of the GRE Psychology Test end to end: what makes a pattern a disorder, the DSM categories and the duration criteria that separate them, the four theories of personality, and why each therapy follows from the model of the disorder that generated it.
- Decide whether a described pattern meets the working criteria for disorder, and reject unusualness or social disapproval as sufficient grounds.
- Sort a case description into the correct diagnostic family, using duration and course as well as symptom content.
- Distinguish positive from negative symptoms in a psychosis description and avoid reading 'negative' as 'severe'.
Formulas covered: Disorder screen · Diathesis–stress · Duration and history as diagnostic tests · Positive and negative symptom split · Personality disorder clusters · Therapy-to-theory map
Read the Clinical and Personality Psychology: Domain Guide noteResearch Methods, Statistics, and Measurement: Domain Guide
The measurement domain of the GRE Psychology Test in one place: what each design licenses, the statistics that appear on the test and what they do not mean, reliability against validity, the theories and metrics of intelligence, and the ethical requirements of human research.
- State what each research design licenses and refuse the causal option when the design cannot support it.
- Distinguish random sampling from random assignment and say which conclusion each one underwrites.
- Compute and interpret a z-score, and use the normal distribution's landmark percentages to place a score.
Formulas covered: z-score and the normal distribution · Correlation and shared variance · Two randomisations, two entitlements · Error and power · Inferential test selection · Reliability and validity relation · IQ: ratio versus deviation
Read the Research Methods, Statistics, and Measurement: Domain Guide noteHistory and Approaches: Domain Guide
The history domain of the GRE Psychology Test as a chain of reactions: what each school took as its subject matter and method, what it was rejecting, and how to read a modern research question back to the perspective that asked it.
- Order the major schools and state, for each, its subject matter, its method, and the position it was rejecting.
- Read a described theoretical commitment back to the school that holds it, without relying on a name being mentioned.
- Distinguish structuralism from functionalism by what each asked about the same conscious experience.
Formulas covered: Schools by subject matter, method, and target · Structuralism versus functionalism in one question · What behaviourism excluded · One behaviour, seven explanations
Read the History and Approaches: Domain Guide note