§-Psychology Q&A
VIC · VCAA← Psychology
Psychology Q&A by dot point
A short Q&A bank for every VIC Psychology syllabus dot point. Each question and answer is drawn directly from our worked dot-point page, so you can scan key concepts before opening the long-form answer.
Unit 3: How does experience affect behaviour and mental processes?
the use of mnemonics by written cultures, including acronyms, acrostics and the method of loci, and the use of mnemonics by oral cultures, including songlines used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, to improve the encoding, storage and retrieval of memory
the contribution that brain conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and aphantasia can make to the understanding of memory, with reference to the role of brain structures and the absence of mental imagery
the Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store model of memory, including the function, capacity and duration of sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory, and the role of the hippocampus, amygdala, neocortex and cerebellum in storing and retrieving explicit and implicit memories
classical conditioning as a three-phase process (before, during and after conditioning) involving an unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response, and operant conditioning as a three-phase model involving antecedent, behaviour and consequence, including positive and negative reinforcement and response cost
the use of strategies (approach and avoidance) for coping with stress and improving mental wellbeing, including context-specific effectiveness and coping flexibility
the roles of episodic and semantic memory in retrieving autobiographical events and in constructing possible imagined futures, including evidence from brain imaging and post-traumatic and developmental amnesia
the gut-brain axis (GBA) as an area of emerging research, with reference to the interaction of gut microbiota with stress and the nervous system in the control of psychological processes and behaviour
the roles of the central and peripheral nervous systems and the autonomic and somatic nervous systems in responding to sensory stimuli and coordinating voluntary and involuntary movement, including the role of neurons in conscious and unconscious responses
the role of neurotransmitters in the transmission of neural information between neurons (lock-and-key process) for the coordination of mental processes and behaviour, including the role of glutamate in learning and memory and GABA in regulating postsynaptic activation
observational learning as a social-cognitive approach to learning involving attention, retention, reproduction, motivation and reinforcement, as demonstrated by Bandura's research, and its application to the acquisition of behaviour
the fight-flight-freeze response to acute stress, the role of cortisol in chronic stress, Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome as a biological model, and Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of stress and coping as a psychological model
synaptic plasticity, including long-term potentiation and long-term depression, resulting from the changing of connections between neurons (sprouting, rerouting and pruning) as the fundamental mechanism of memory formation that leads to learning
Unit 4: How is mental wellbeing supported and maintained?
the effects of circadian rhythm phase disorders, including delayed sleep phase syndrome, advanced sleep phase disorder and shift work, on a person's sleep-wake cycle and mental wellbeing
the improvement of sleep-wake patterns and mental wellbeing through application of behavioural strategies including sleep hygiene and the manipulation of zeitgebers such as daylight and blue light from electronic devices
mental wellbeing as a continuum, the distinction between stress, anxiety and a mental disorder, and the application of a biopsychosocial approach to explain the development and management of specific phobia, including evidence-based interventions such as systematic desensitisation
the regulation of sleep-wake patterns by internal circadian and ultradian rhythms, the effects of partial and total sleep deprivation on affective, behavioural and cognitive functioning, and the comparison of sleep deprivation effects to blood alcohol concentration readings
sleep as a psychological construct and a naturally occurring altered state of consciousness, the distinction between REM and NREM sleep, the cyclical nature of sleep across a night measured using an EEG, EMG and EOG, and the differences in sleep across the lifespan
ways of considering mental wellbeing, including levels of functioning and resilience, and social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) as a multidimensional and holistic framework to wellbeing including protective factors and cultural determinants for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples