Moiz,

12. Confirmation bias is the tendency to favor information that confirms existing beliefs. It can involve biases in the search for evidence (option B, physician attentiveness/searching) and in the interpretation of evidence (option C, interpretation of symptoms) therefore it impacts cognitive processing. Additionally, it has been shown to be increased in emotionally charged situations (leaving out option D). Parental concealment is a social interaction rather than a cognitive processing factor that has been associated with confirmation bias. This answer also could have been chosen based on elimination understanding the concept and being left with choice A.

36. Variable ratio schedules maintain high and steady rates of the desired behavior, and the behavior is very resistant to extinction. Interval schedules involve reinforcing a behavior after an interval of time has passed.Interval schedules involve reinforcing a behavior after an variable interval of time has passed. As stated in the passage: "During the third week, they received a prize in a random fashion, only on some of the occasions when they engaged in a learned coping strategy." As this is variable and at random, this is the definition of variable ratio. If it was an interval there would be a mention of a time period. You need to know these.

38. The schedules listed are in order of most to least extinction. Resistance to extinction refers to how long a behavior continues to be displayed even after it is no longer being reinforced. week 1: no reinforcement (lowest incentive), week 2: fixed reinforcement (increasing the incentive), and week 3: variable interval motivation is highest with random fashion as they are likely to exhibit the behaviour all the time in anticipation they will not be able to figure out when the prize will be given. I would take a look over these reinforcement schedules and their success/application.

54. 10% is a pretty significant amount of cases. A rule of thumb I use personally in my practice is anything under 5% is insignificant. Interview data is not really pertinent to this study as they are not assessing themes or qualitative data. The passage states and was looking for: "utilization and clinical appropriateness of revascularization by race and gender; the proportion of patients for whom revascularization was medically indicated but that did not receive treatment; and mortality rates for coronary revascularization versus medical therapy".


58. Social constructionism is a theory of knowledge that holds that characteristics typically thought to be immutable and solely biological—such as gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality—are products of human definition and interpretation shaped by cultural and historical contexts. The correct answer is D (Technology is embedded with the values of groups who create it), because the statement implies that technology is the product of groups/ individuals rather than of natural processes (in other words, technology is a social creation), which is consistent with social constructionism. The other answers imply technology is not a result of social forces, which is the base of social constructionism.

I can see you are very keen and hard-working, so keep it up!!! Moving forward I would try to limit your focus on individual questions and extremely specific concepts. For MCAT do not get bogged down on the details, you want to focus on learning the skill of test-taking and eliminating answers. When you get questions wrong like 36 and 38 (which are both about reinforcement schedules), instead of just focusing on the question and rationale for that specific answer, research supports you will retain more information if you look into the concept and do the research into the concept. The AAMC tests are great as they specify the content categories. For example q. 58 states the question is about "understanding social structure". Once you read over reinforcement schedules, I guarantee you will have a better ability to rationalize the answer. If you still are not able to understand the answer or concept that is a good time to come to the Forum :)