MCAT® Exam flashcards

Individuals are less likely to help a victim in an emergency when other bystanders are present.

• Increased number of bystanders decreases likelihood of help.
• Caused by diffusion of responsibility, social influence, audience inhibition.
• Highlights impact of group size on individual action.

Memory trick: Bystander: Many eyes, no one acts.

Psychological discomfort from conflicting beliefs/actions; motivates individuals to reduce this conflict.

• Arises from conflicting cognitions (beliefs, values, actions).
• Creates psychological discomfort.
• Motivates individuals to reduce the conflict, often by changing beliefs or rationalizing actions.

Memory trick: Dissonance makes your thoughts feel 'off-key'.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values.

• Leads to selective attention and interpretation.
• Can make individuals resistant to contradictory evidence.
• Impacts decision-making and critical evaluation.

Memory trick: Confirm What You Believe, And Others Deceive.

A non-invasive medical imaging technique that uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed images of organs and soft tissues within the body.

• Provides high-resolution anatomical images
• Excellent for distinguishing between different soft tissues
• Used to measure brain structure size and identify lesions
• Does not involve ionizing radiation

Memory trick: MRI maps structure, fMRI maps function.

An anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent unexpected panic attacks, which are sudden episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms (e.g., heart palpitations, shortness of breath) and cognitive symptoms (e.g., fear of losing control or dying).

• Involves unexpected panic attacks.
• Symptoms peak within minutes.
• Often leads to anticipatory anxiety and avoidance (agoraphobia).
• Not triggered by specific, consistent situations initially.

Memory trick: Anxiety's Attacks: General, Social, Panic, Phobic.

Graham's Law states that the rate of effusion (or diffusion) of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of its molar mass.

• Lighter gases effuse/diffuse faster than heavier gases.
• Applies to both effusion (gas escaping through a tiny hole) and diffusion (gas spreading out).
• Mathematical form: Rate₁ / Rate₂ = √(M₂ / M₁).

Memory trick: Heavy is Slow, Light is Fast.

Preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.

• Systematic, avoidable, and unjust differences
• Often linked to social, economic, or environmental disadvantage
• Can involve access to care, quality of care, or health outcomes
• A key concern within the study of social stratification

Memory trick: Stratification creates health disparities, not just mobility.

A mood disorder characterized by a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest in activities that once brought joy (anhedonia), along with other cognitive and physical symptoms, lasting for at least two weeks.

• Requires at least 5 symptoms from a specific list, including depressed mood or anhedonia.
• Symptoms must cause clinically significant distress or impairment.
• Not attributable to substance use or another medical condition.

Memory trick: MDD: 'M'iserable, 'D'own, 'D'epressed for weeks.

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity. It can lead to uninhibited, impulsive, and sometimes antisocial behavior.

• Occurs in large groups or crowds.
• Involves reduced self-awareness and personal accountability.
• Can lead to behavior uncharacteristic of the individual.
• Often associated with anonymity and arousal.

Memory trick: Crowd's Control: Conforming, Deviating, Daring.

The ability of the brain to change and adapt its structure and function in response to specific environmental experiences, learning, and skill acquisition.

• Involves strengthening or weakening of synaptic connections.
• Leads to specialization of brain regions.
• Underlies learning and memory throughout life.
• Different from general experience-expectant plasticity.

Memory trick: Brain's Building Blocks: Myelin, Synapses, Neurons, Experience.

The hierarchical division of society into categories, strata, or classes based on factors such as wealth, income, race, education, and power.

• Universal feature of societies, though its forms vary
• Leads to unequal distribution of resources and opportunities
• Can be based on class, status, or power

Memory trick: Layers of society, unequal prosperity.

The act of maintaining, protecting, and revitalizing the traditions, customs, language, artifacts, and values of a particular culture or society.

• Involves active efforts to prevent cultural loss
• Can include language revitalization, traditional arts, historical sites
• Aims to pass cultural heritage to future generations
• Often a response to external pressures or globalization

Memory trick: Preservation protects the past from fading fast.

The unwritten rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a group or society, often dictating how individuals should act in particular situations.

• Can be prescriptive (what one should do) or proscriptive (what one should not do)
• Enforced through social sanctions (positive or negative)
• Vary across cultures and time

Memory trick: Norms are the 'normal' rules people follow.

Learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others and the consequences of that behavior.

• Also known as social learning or modeling
• Key figure: Albert Bandura (Bobo doll experiment)
• Involves attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation

Memory trick: Observe, then absorb, then act.

A perceptual principle stating that humans tend to perceive incomplete shapes or figures as complete by filling in the missing information.

• Our minds prefer whole, recognizable objects
• Allows us to make sense of fragmented stimuli
• One of the fundamental Gestalt laws of perceptual organization

Memory trick: P-S-C-C-F-S: Proximity, Similarity, Closure, Continuity, Figure-Ground, Symmetry.

Transition metals typically form cations by first losing electrons from their outermost s-orbital, followed by d-orbital electrons if higher oxidation states are required.

• Electrons are removed from the s-subshell before the d-subshell.
• Many transition metals form +2 ions by losing their two valence s-electrons.
• Multiple oxidation states are common due to the involvement of d-electrons.

Memory trick: S-shell First, Then D-shell.

The anterior part of the frontal lobe, responsible for complex cognitive behaviors, decision-making, social behavior, and moderating social conduct.

• Crucial for executive functions (planning, problem-solving).
• Involved in working memory and attention.
• Plays a role in personality expression and social behavior.

Memory trick: Frontal's Focus: Future, Function, Freedom (of thought).

Calorimetry involves measuring the heat transferred during a chemical or physical process using the equation q = mcΔT, and relating it to molar enthalpy changes.

• q = m × c × ΔT (heat transferred = mass × specific heat capacity × temperature change).
• q_reaction = -q_calorimeter (or -q_solution).
• Molar enthalpy (ΔH) = q_reaction / moles of limiting reactant.

Memory trick: Q equals mc-delta-T, then Divide by Moles.

A brain region located on the inferior surface of the temporal lobe, specialized for face perception and recognition.

• Part of the ventral visual stream ('what' pathway)
• Lesions can cause prosopagnosia (face blindness)
• Also involved in expert recognition of other complex visual stimuli

Memory trick: Faces fuse in the fusiform.

The variable that is measured or observed in an experiment; its value is expected to change in response to the independent variable.

• It is the 'effect' in a cause-and-effect relationship
• Its value depends on the independent variable
• Often represented on the y-axis of a graph

Memory trick: I manipulate, D depends on me.

The phenomenon that letters are recognized more easily and accurately when presented in the context of a word than when presented alone or in a non-word string.

• Demonstrates the influence of top-down processing on perception.
• Suggests that context aids letter recognition.
• Related to the idea of perceptual units.

Memory trick: Context Cues Clarity: See the whole to see the parts better.

An ideal system in which social stratification is based on personal merit. In a meritocracy, individuals achieve their social standing based on their abilities and efforts, rather than on their family's wealth or social connections.

• Based on achievement, not ascription.
• Often an ideal, rarely fully realized in practice.
• Underpins beliefs in 'pulling oneself up by bootstraps'.
• Can mask structural inequalities.

Memory trick: Social Systems: Striving, Sticking, or Struggling.

A mental disorder in which a person acts as if he or she has a physical or mental illness when he or she is not really sick. The primary motivation is to assume the sick role and gain attention/sympathy, not for external rewards.

• Intentional falsification or induction of symptoms.
• Motivation is to assume the sick role.
• Absence of obvious external incentives (distinguishing from malingering).
• Can be imposed on self or on another.

Memory trick: Somatic Symptoms: Sickness, Suspicion, or Simulation.

A mental disorder in which a person experiences blindness, paralysis, or other neurological symptoms that cannot be explained by medical evaluation.

• Symptoms are real and not faked (not malingering)
• Often associated with psychological stress or trauma
• Formerly known as 'hysteria'

Memory trick: Converts stress to physical distress.

A procedure in clinical trials and research studies where one or more parties involved in the study (participants, researchers, data analysts) are kept unaware of the treatment assignments to prevent bias.

• Reduces placebo effect and experimenter bias.
• Single-blind: one party unaware.
• Double-blind: two parties unaware (participant and researcher administering treatment).
• Triple-blind: all three parties unaware (participant, researcher, data analyst).

Memory trick: Blinding: Blocking Bias, Better Beliefs.

In ¹H NMR spectroscopy, the 'n+1 rule' states that a proton signal will be split into n+1 peaks by n equivalent protons on adjacent carbon atoms.

• Adjacent protons cause splitting (spin-spin coupling).
• n = number of equivalent protons on adjacent carbons.
• Common patterns: singlet (n=0), doublet (n=1), triplet (n=2), quartet (n=3).

Memory trick: Peaks Predict Protons' Partners.

A sociological perspective that views society as a competition for limited resources, emphasizing power differentials, social inequality, and the struggle between groups.

• Focuses on power and inequality
• Society is characterized by conflict and competition
• Social order maintained by domination and coercion
• Social change results from struggles between groups

Memory trick: Conflict sees class struggle, function sees harmony, symbols see meaning.

A relationship between two events or states where one event (the cause) brings about the other event (the effect). Establishing causation requires more than just correlation.

• Temporal precedence: Cause must precede effect
• Consistent association: Cause and effect must occur together
• Lack of spuriousness: No other variable explains the relationship
• Plausible mechanism: A logical explanation for the link

Memory trick: Causation: 'Cause' and 'Effect' are linked.

A brain structure located in the medial temporal lobe, primarily associated with memory, especially the formation of new memories (consolidation).

• Crucial for declarative memory formation (facts and events)
• Damage often leads to anterograde amnesia
• Part of the limbic system

Memory trick: Hippos on Campus make new memories.

One of Robert Cialdini's six principles of persuasion, stating that people tend to obey or follow the advice of those in positions of authority or perceived expertise.

• Leverages perceived knowledge, credibility, and power
• Commonly used in advertising (e.g., doctors, experts)
• Can lead to blind obedience under certain circumstances

Memory trick: LARCS-C: Liking, Authority, Reciprocity, Commitment, Scarcity, Consensus.

A condition in which a person or animal has learned to behave helplessly, failing to respond even when opportunities for relief are available, because of repeated exposure to uncontrollable painful or aversive stimuli.

• Results from exposure to inescapable adverse events.
• Leads to passive behavior in controllable situations.
• Associated with depression and anxiety.

Memory trick: Helpless Hounds Hunker, Hoping it Halts.

An adaptation to societal strain where individuals reject both the culturally defined goals and the legitimate means to achieve them, and instead seek to replace them with new goals and new means, often leading to social movements or countercultures.

• Rejects conventional goals (e.g., wealth).
• Rejects conventional means (e.g., education, job).
• Seeks to establish new goals and new means.
• Often involves collective action to change the system.

Memory trick: Conforming, Innovating, Ritualizing, Retreating, Rebellious.

The variable that is changed or controlled in a scientific experiment to test its effects on the dependent variable.

• Manipulated by the researcher
• Causes a change in the dependent variable
• Often denoted as 'X' in graphs

Memory trick: IV is what I Vary, DV is what I Discover.

A teaching method in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory where a more knowledgeable individual provides temporary support to a learner, helping them achieve a task they couldn't do independently.

• Part of Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory
• Temporary support from a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)
• Helps learner achieve tasks within their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
• Support is gradually withdrawn as the learner becomes proficient

Memory trick: Vygotsky's scaffolding lifts you through the ZPD.

A research method that examines the relationship between two or more variables without manipulating any of them.

• Identifies patterns and relationships
• Does not establish causation
• Variables are measured, not manipulated

Memory trick: Correlation doesn't cause, just relates.

A type of psychotherapy that helps individuals identify and change unhelpful or unhealthy thinking patterns and behaviors.

• Focuses on the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
• Goal-oriented and problem-focused
• Widely used for depression, anxiety disorders, and other mental health conditions

Memory trick: CBT changes thoughts, then behaviors follow.

For a molecule with 'n' chiral centers (stereocenters), the maximum possible number of stereoisomers is 2ⁿ.

• A chiral center is typically a carbon atom bonded to four different groups.
• This rule gives the *maximum* number; meso compounds can reduce the actual count.
• Stereoisomers include enantiomers and diastereomers.

Memory trick: Chiral Centers Count, Two to the Power.

A sleep disorder characterized by dissatisfaction with sleep quantity or quality, associated with difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep.

• Symptoms occur at least 3 nights per week for at least 3 months
• Causes significant distress or impairment in functioning
• Not better explained by another sleep disorder or mental/medical condition

Memory trick: In-somnia means 'no sleep' for months.

A mental disorder characterized by a persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life, lasting for at least two weeks.

• At least 5 symptoms present during the same 2-week period
• One symptom must be depressed mood or anhedonia (loss of interest/pleasure)
• Symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment
• Not attributable to substance use or another medical condition

Memory trick: MDD needs 5 sad signs, for 2 weeks, causing real pain.

The rate-determining step (RDS) is the slowest elementary step in a reaction mechanism, and it dictates the overall rate law of the reaction.

• The rate law for the overall reaction is derived from the RDS.
• Intermediates cannot appear in the overall rate law.
• If the RDS involves an intermediate, its concentration must be expressed in terms of reactants using the equilibrium of a preceding fast step.

Memory trick: Slow Step Sets the Speed, No Intermediates.

The process of cultural and psychological change that results from continuous firsthand contact between two or more distinct cultural groups.

• Involves adaptation to a new culture
• Original cultural identity is partially maintained
• Can occur at individual or group level
• Distinct from assimilation (where original culture is largely lost)

Memory trick: Acculturation accepts new while keeping old culture.

A state in which people of all races and ethnicities are distinct but have equal social standing.

• Often described as a 'salad bowl' where ingredients retain their individual characteristics
• Emphasizes mutual respect for cultural differences
• Contrast with assimilation and melting pot models

Memory trick: Plurality means variety, yet unity.

The fourth stage of the Demographic Transition Model, characterized by very low birth rates (often below replacement level) and very low death rates, resulting in a stable or slowly decreasing population and an aging population structure.

• Birth rate falls below replacement level
• Death rate remains low
• Population stabilizes or slightly declines
• Increased proportion of elderly individuals

Memory trick: Transition: From many births/deaths to few births/deaths.

A chronic mental disorder characterized by disturbances in thought, perception, emotion, and behavior, requiring the presence of specific symptoms for a significant portion of time over a six-month period.

• Requires at least two active-phase symptoms for at least one month.
• One symptom must be delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech.
• Significant impairment in social/occupational functioning.
• Duration of disturbance is at least six months.

Memory trick: Schizo-Spectra: See Crazy, Hear Voices, Feel Disconnected.

Alcohols can be oxidized to aldehydes, ketones, or carboxylic acids depending on the type of alcohol and the strength of the oxidizing agent.

• Primary alcohols can be oxidized to aldehydes (mild) or carboxylic acids (strong).
• Secondary alcohols can be oxidized to ketones.
• Tertiary alcohols are generally resistant to oxidation.

Memory trick: Primary PCC to Aldehyde; Jones for Carboxylic.

A cognitive bias where an individual's subjective confidence in their judgments is greater than the objective accuracy of those judgments.

• Can lead to poor decision-making
• Often results in underestimating risks or errors
• Mitigated by seeking external validation or double-checking

Memory trick: Biased Brains Make Bad Decisions.

A theory stating that emotion is based on two factors: physiological arousal and a cognitive label (or appraisal) of that arousal, which interprets the arousal in context.

• Physiological arousal is general and undifferentiated
• Cognitive appraisal provides the specific emotional label
• Context plays a crucial role in interpreting arousal
• Arousal + Label = Emotion

Memory trick: Schachter-Singer: Arousal first, then think for emotion's worth.

A type of aphasia resulting from damage to Broca's area, characterized by difficulty with speech production (non-fluent speech) despite relatively intact language comprehension.

• Also known as expressive or non-fluent aphasia
• Speech is slow, effortful, and dysarthric
• Often involves agrammatism (missing function words)
• Comprehension is typically preserved, though complex sentences may be difficult

Memory trick: Broca's is broken speech, Wernicke's is wacky words.

The shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that characterize a group or society, transmitted from one generation to the next.

• Includes both material (objects) and non-material (ideas) aspects
• Learned, not innate
• Shapes individual and group identity

Memory trick: Culture: 'C'ustoms, 'U'nderstandings, 'L'anguage, 'T'raditions, 'U'nique, 'R'ituals, 'E'thos.

The absorption of weak acid and weak base drugs across biological membranes is highly dependent on their ionization state, which is influenced by the pH of the environment and the drug's pKa.

• Unionized (nonpolar) forms of drugs are generally more permeable across lipid membranes.
• For weak acids: Unionized form (HA) predominates when pH < pKa.
• For weak bases: Unionized form (B) predominates when pH > pKa.

Memory trick: Unionized Unlocks Uptake.

A research method where the researcher manipulates one or more independent variables to determine their effect on a dependent variable, typically involving random assignment to control and experimental groups.

• Allows for cause-and-effect conclusions
• Involves manipulation of variables
• Often includes random assignment and control groups

Memory trick: Experimental: 'EX'amine cause-effect by 'EX'perimenting.

A psychological or physiological response to a 'fake' treatment (placebo) that is not due to any active ingredient, but rather to the participant's belief in the treatment or the expectation of benefit.

• Can produce real physiological changes.
• Controlled for in clinical trials using blind or double-blind designs.
• Highlights the power of expectation and belief in health outcomes.

Memory trick: Controls ensure experiments are clean, like a pristine lab scene.

Refraction is the bending of light as it passes from one medium to another due to a change in its speed.

• Light bends towards the normal when entering a denser medium.
• Light bends away from the normal when entering a less dense medium.
• The frequency of light remains constant during refraction.

Memory trick: Light Bends Speed Changes

A neural circuit in the brain that mediates pleasure and motivation, primarily involving dopamine.

• Key structures: Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA), Nucleus Accumbens, Prefrontal Cortex
• Involved in feelings of pleasure, reinforcement, and motivation
• Dysregulation linked to addiction, depression, and other psychiatric disorders

Memory trick: Rewards feel good, loss feels bad.

Grignard reagents (R-MgX) are organometallic compounds formed from an alkyl or aryl halide (R-X) and magnesium metal, typically in an anhydrous ethereal solvent.

• R-MgX is a very strong nucleophile and base.
• Extremely sensitive to protic solvents (water, alcohols, carboxylic acids).
• Requires anhydrous conditions to prevent quenching.

Memory trick: Grignard's Great, but Get it Dry, or it Will Die!

The overall three-dimensional shape of a single polypeptide chain, resulting from interactions between the side chains of amino acids.

• Determined by interactions between R-groups (side chains).
• Stabilized by hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen bonds, ionic bonds, and disulfide bonds.
• Crucial for protein function as it creates the active site in enzymes.

Memory trick: Primary: Peptide sequence. Secondary: Spirals & Sheets. Tertiary: Three-dimensional folds. Quaternary: Q-tip multiple units.

The ability of a test to correctly identify individuals who have a particular disease or condition (true positive rate).

• Calculated as True Positives / (True Positives + False Negatives).
• A highly sensitive test has few false negatives.
• Useful for ruling out diseases (SNOUT: Sensitive Negative, rule Out).

Memory trick: Accuracy is like hitting the target, but from different angles.

The philosophical position that certain ethical principles or truths are absolute and apply universally to all people.

• Contrasts with moral relativism.
• Often rooted in reason, divine command, or natural law.
• Suggests a common moral framework for humanity.

Memory trick: Universal truths are like global laws for morality.

A solenoid is a coil of wire wound into a tightly packed helix. When current flows through it, it generates a nearly uniform and strong magnetic field inside the coil, similar to a bar magnet.

• Magnetic field inside is approximately uniform.
• Field strength depends on current, number of turns per unit length, and permeability of the core.
• Used in electromagnets, MRI machines, and relays.

Memory trick: Solenoid: Super Uniform, Optimal for Imaging Devices.

An equation used to calculate the pH of a buffer solution: pH = pKa + log([A-]/[HA]), where [A-] is the concentration of the conjugate base and [HA] is the concentration of the weak acid.

• Useful for calculating pH of buffers.
• When [A-] = [HA], then pH = pKa.
• Buffer capacity is highest when [A-] is close to [HA].

Memory trick: H-H Equation: pH = pKa + log(Base over Acid).