anecdotal evidence - Answers Evidence gathered from others or from one's own accounts of
incidents.
Case Study - Answers Intensive observation of a particular individual or small group of people
over an extended period.
Constant - Answers Feature or quality that takes the same value across all situations
Control Group - Answers the group that does not receive the experimental treatment and acts as
an accurate comparison.
Correlation - Answers A measure of the relationship between two variables
correlation coefficient - Answers A numerical index of the degree of relationship between two
variables (from -1 to +1)
Dependant variable - Answers the variable that is affected by the independent variable
double-blind study - Answers An experiment in which neither the participant nor the researcher
knows which group each participant belongs to.
Empiricism - Answers The perspective that knowledge should be obtained through direct
observation rather than rationality or logic
Experiment - Answers A research method that measures the effect of one variable on another.
experimental group - Answers the group in an experiment that receives the experimental
treatment or manipulation in regards to the independent variable
experimenter bias - Answers Unintentional or deliberate actions taken by the experimenter to
promote the result they hope to achieve
Extraneous Variable (confounding variable) - Answers Variable that was not measured or
manipulated by the experimenter but could still impact the outcome of the experiment
Hypothesis - Answers Testable statements that make predictions about the relationship
between variables
Independent Variable - Answers variable that is manipulated or controlled
inferential statistics - Answers procedures used to draw conclusions about larger populations
from small samples of data
Mean - Answers average value of a set of data (Add all values together and then divide by the
,number of values)
measures of central tendency - Answers Summarizing data into a single value that represents
the entire distribution (Mean, Median, Mode)
Median - Answers Centre value of a set of data when arranged numerically
Mode - Answers Value that is most frequent in a set of data
naturalistic observation - Answers Observation of behaviour in real-world settings.
Outlier - Answers A value that lies outside of most of the other values in a set of data.
Participants - Answers People whose behaviours are systematically studied in an experiment
practice effect - Answers any change in performance that results from mere repetition of a task
random assignment - Answers Randomly sorting participants into the control or experimental
groups in order to avoid any biases.
Random Sample - Answers Choosing a set of subjects at random from the population being
studied to give fair inclusion to everyone.
Response set - Answers a tendency to respond to questions in a particular way that is unrelated
to the content of the questions
sampling bias - Answers A problem that occurs when a sample is not representative of the
population from which it is drawn.
Scientific Method - Answers Formal methods used to examine and answer questions of
scientific nature
social desirability bias - Answers A tendency to give socially approved answers to questions
about oneself.
statistical significance - Answers a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained
result occurred by chance
p-value - Answers Needs to be less than 0.05 in order for findings to be significant
positive correlation - Answers A correlation where as one variable increases, the other also
increases, or as one decreases so does the other.
negative correlation - Answers A correlation where as one variable increases, the other
decreases
conditional response - Answers the learned response to a previously neutral (but now
conditioned) stimulus
, conditional stimulus - Answers an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an
unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response
Conditioning Trials - Answers Trials in which the CS and US are presented together to create an
association between the two stimuli.
contiguity - Answers the extent to which the CS and US occur together in time and space
Extinction - Answers When the CS no longer elicits the CR due to repeated exposure of the CS
alone.
Habituation - Answers Decrease in response to a stimulus when it is repeatedly presented
without consequences
orienting response - Answers An automatic shift of attention toward a stimulus.
Reacquisition - Answers the much more rapid learning of the CS-US relationship after extinction
has occurred
Sensitization - Answers An often adaptive, increase in response to a stimulus that is repeatedly
presented.
spontaneous recovery - Answers the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished
conditioned response
stimulus discrimination - Answers a learned ability to differentiate among similar stimuli
discrimination training - Answers The response in the presence of one stimulus is reinforced
while a response in the presence of the other is not.
unconditioned response - Answers a naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus
unconditioned stimulus - Answers A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without
previous conditioning
Chaining - Answers each step of a sequence must be learned and must lead to the next until the
final action is achieved
continuous reinforcement - Answers the reinforcement of each and every correct response
Contrast effects - Answers changes in the value of a reward lead to shifts in response rate
discriminitive stimulus - Answers Cues or signals which help determine the appropriateness of a
particular behaviour.
escape training - Answers Removal of a negative reinforcer after a desired behaviour
fixed-interval schedule - Answers a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response only