QCE Psychology: complete 2026 guide to Units 3 and 4 (2025 syllabus)

QCE General Psychology Units 3 and 4 are the Year 12 sequence, assessed through three internal assessments (IA1 to IA3) and one external assessment (EA). In 2026, students follow the QCAA Psychology 2025 General senior syllabus, and the 2026 external assessment is the first set on it. Every dot-point page below follows the 2025 syllabus and quotes the subject matter it covers.

We checked the syllabus structure, subject matter and assessment against QCAA's Psychology 2025 syllabus document (version 1.2, October 2024; QCAA has since released version 1.3 in January 2026). Please confirm details with your teacher or the current version on the QCAA website.

Units 3 and 4 in the 2025 syllabus

Unit 3: Individual thinking. How the nervous system and brain underlie individual thinking, and the cognitive processes of perception, memory and learning.

• Topic 1: Brain function. The nervous system and spinal reflexes; localised and distributed brain function; language, voluntary movement and emotion; neurotransmission and neurotransmitters; Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
• Topic 2: Sensation and perception. Seeing and hearing from reception to the primary cortex; perceptual set; Gestalt principles, depth cues and constancies; loudness, pitch and timbre; cultural influences on perception.
• Topic 3: Memory. The multi-store, working memory and levels of processing models; implicit and explicit memory and their brain structures; recall, recognition and relearning; forgetting; strategies to improve memory; context-dependent memory (Grant et al., 1998).
• Topic 4: Learning. Classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning theory, including learned fear ('Little Albert'), the Skinner box and the Bobo doll experiments.

Unit 4: The influence of others. How other people influence our development, behaviour and thinking.

• Topic 1: Social psychology. Socialisation; gender role formation; compliance, identification and internalisation; status, roles and power; obedience, conformity and social norms; Asch, Milgram, and Haney, Banks and Zimbardo.
• Topic 2: Interpersonal processes. Bystander intervention; prosocial and antisocial behaviour; the general aggression model; media and aggression; attraction; relationship dissolution.
• Topic 3: Attitudes. The tri-component model; implicit and explicit attitudes; cognitive dissonance; social identity theory; attributions and biases; stereotypes; the formation of prejudice; stereotype priming (Bargh, Chen and Burrows, 1996).
• Topic 4: Cross-cultural psychology. Sense of community; culture; multiculturalism and pluralism; immigration and acculturation; racism; reducing prejudice.

Unit 3 dot-point guides

Topic 1: Brain function

• The nervous system, spinal reflexes, movement and emotion
• Localisation of brain function and language
• Neurotransmission, neurotransmitters, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease
• Plasticity and recovery from brain injury (internal assessment only)

Topic 2: Sensation and perception

• Seeing and hearing, loudness, pitch and timbre, and cultural influences
• Perceptual set, Gestalt principles, depth cues and constancies

Topic 3: Memory

• Three models of memory and the brain structures of memory
• Forgetting and improving memory

Topic 4: Learning

• Classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning theory

Unit 4 dot-point guides

Topic 1: Social psychology

• Socialisation and gender role formation
• Conformity, obedience and social influence
• Status, roles and power

Topic 2: Interpersonal processes

• Prosocial and antisocial behaviour, bystander intervention and aggression
• Social and cognitive factors: groupthink, diffusion of responsibility and more
• Attraction and relationship dissolution

Topic 3: Attitudes

• Attitudes, implicit and explicit attitudes, and cognitive dissonance
• Attributions, biases and stereotypes
• Social identity theory and the formation of prejudice

Topic 4: Cross-cultural psychology

• Culture, community and multiculturalism
• Immigration, acculturation and reducing prejudice

Units 1 and 2 (Year 11 foundation)

These pages were previously filed under Unit 3. In the 2025 syllabus they are Year 11 subject matter, not assessed in Units 3 and 4.

• Unit 1 Topic 2 (Cognitive development): Neural plasticity, Piaget, Vygotsky
• Unit 2 Topic 1 (Intelligence): Theories and measurement of intelligence, Emotional intelligence
• Unit 2 Topic 2 (Diagnosis): Diagnosis and classification

Assessment in Units 3 and 4

From the 2025 syllabus:

• IA1: Data test (10 per cent). Items on two to four unseen datasets from practicals, activities or case studies relevant to Unit 3. About 30 per cent of marks for determining unknown quantities or features, 30 per cent for trends, patterns, relationships, limitations or uncertainty, and 40 per cent for drawing conclusions. Responses are single words, sentences (up to 150 words per question) or calculations. 5 minutes perusal, 60 minutes working, supervised, with a calculator.
• IA2: Student experiment (20 per cent). Modify (refine, extend or redirect) an experiment relevant to Unit 3 to address your own hypothesis or question: research, risk assessment, data collection and analysis, conclusions, and evaluation of reliability and validity. Written (up to 2000 words) or multimodal (up to 11 minutes). About 10 hours of class time is recommended.
• IA3: Research investigation (20 per cent). Evaluate a claim relevant to Unit 4, chosen from a teacher-provided list, by posing a research question and gathering evidence from scientifically credible sources. Written (up to 2000 words) or multimodal (up to 11 minutes).
• External assessment (50 per cent). A QCAA-set combination-response examination in two papers, each 5 minutes perusal and 90 minutes working, covering Units 3 and 4 with multiple choice, short responses, calculations and unseen stimulus. On our 2026 timetable data: Paper 1 on Tuesday 10 November 2026 and Paper 2 on Wednesday 11 November 2026.

In each topic, "science understanding" subject matter can be assessed in the external assessment, while "science as a human endeavour" and "science inquiry" subject matter may be assessed in the internal assessments. Our pages flag where a point is internal-only.

What changed from the 2019 syllabus

• Unit 3 Topic 1 is now "Brain function" (it was "Localisation of function in the brain"). It now distinguishes monosynaptic and polysynaptic spinal reflexes, and describes brain function as both localised and distributed.
• Unit 3 Topic 2 is now "Sensation and perception" (it was visual perception only), adding hearing, loudness, pitch and timbre, and newer cultural research (de Bruine, Vredeveldt and van Koppen, 2018; Patel and Demorest, 2013).
• Unit 3 Topic 3 asks you to compare three models of memory (the 2019 syllabus evaluated two), and its strategies now include spacing and interleaving.
• Unit 4 keeps its four topics (social psychology, interpersonal processes, attitudes, cross-cultural psychology), with some changes to the subject matter, for example self-disclosure as an origin of attraction and stereotype priming (Bargh, Chen and Burrows, 1996) as the Attitudes investigation.

How to use this hub

Starting Unit 3

work through Brain function first, because neurotransmission and brain structures come back in memory and learning. IA1 and IA2 both draw on Unit 3, so learn to describe data trends with numbers early.

Designing your IA2

start from a suggested investigation in the syllabus, such as the context-dependency of memory (Grant et al., 1998) or levels of processing, and read the matching dot-point page.

Before the external assessment

revise every science understanding dot point in Units 3 and 4, practise interpreting unseen data, and attach the named study to each concept where the syllabus names one.

The system around QCE Psychology

• How the QCE ATAR is calculated
• Internal vs external assessments
• AARA special arrangements
• QCE exam day: what to actually expect

For the official Psychology 2025 General senior syllabus, sample assessment instruments and subject reports, see qcaa.qld.edu.au.