15 Search Results

• Variable Ratio Schedule (VR) definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  This is going to be a little confusing at first, but hang on and it will become clear. A variable ratio schedule (VR) is a type of operant conditioning reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is given after an unpredictable (variable) number of responses are made by the organism. This is almost identical to a Fixed-Ratio S... Read more

• Independent Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  In an experiment there are two variables; the Independent Variable (IV) and the Dependent Variable (DV). In the most basic sense, you need two variables because as a researcher, you want to be able to examine if something (a drug, a therapy, a teaching technique, whatever) has an effect on some participant (person, people, anima... Read more

• Variable Interval Schedule definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  If you understand variable ratio schedules, this will be easy. If not, this might be a little confusing at first, but hang on and it will become clear. A variable interval schedule (VI) is a type of operant conditioning reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is given to a response after specific amount of time has passed ... Read more

• Confounding Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  A Confounding Variable is an extraneous variable whose presence affects the variables being studied so that the results you get do not reflect the actual relationship between the variables under investigation. When conducting an experiment, the basic question that any experimenter is asking is: "How does A affect B?" where A is ... Read more

• Continuous Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  A continuous variable is a way of organizing distributions which can have any range of values in between differing values. An example of a continuous variable is weight or height - a person doesn't have to be either 150 pounds or 151 pounds. They could be 150.6 or 150.99999 pounds. This is opposed to a discrete variable which us... Read more

• Dependent Variable (DV) definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  In an experiment there are two variables; the independent variable (IV) and the dependent variable (DV). In the most basic sense, you need two variables because as a researcher, you want to be able to examine if something (a drug, a therapy, a teaching technique, whatever) has an effect on some participant (person, people, anima... Read more

• Nuisance Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  Nuisance variable is an unwanted factor which may affect the dependent variable in an experiment. Examples of this type of extraneous variable (hyperlink) include environmental conditions such as noise and temperature and participant characteristics such as mood swings and physical health. For instance, an experiment which seeks... Read more

• Background Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  A background variable is a certain factor in a respondent’s background or circumstance which may affect other variables. However, such factors will not necessarily be significantly affected by the other variables. For example, it could be that one background variable of a respondent (i.e., his religion) as it influences h... Read more

• Extraneous Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  As we all know by now, psychologists like to control things -- in particular, we like to establish as much control as possible when conducting experiments. After all, what's the point of conducting the experiment if in the end we can't really say that the results are due to the variables we are studying? For example, if I want t... Read more

• Discrete Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  A discrete variable can only have finite values and comes from a specifically defined set. An example of a discrete variable is how many pennies you have in your wallet. You could have 0,1,2,3,4, or 100 pennies in your wallet- but you cannot have 2.4 or 3.7 pennies in your wallet. © 1998- , AlleyDog.com. All material within t... Read more

• Mediator Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  A mediator variable is one of a set of "third" variables that are used in statistics to explain away the causal factors that are used to explain the results of research. It explains a relationship between the independent and dependent variables. For example, a study may show a positive correlation between exposure to media viole... Read more

• Ordinal Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  An Ordinal Variable is one measured in categories on an ordinal scale, meaning that the order or rank of the categories is important. For example, a researcher asks respondents to choose one of the following to rate their job satisfaction: (1) not at all satisfied; (2) slightly satisfied; (3) mostly satisfied; or (4) completely ... Read more

• Qualitative Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  A qualitative variable, also known as categorical variable, has features that can be names or labeled under a broad heading. When categorizing items the first step is to group these items broadly - for example, animals, plants, minerals. Under these broad categories there will be many possible subcategories that narrow the subje... Read more

• Variable definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  Any characteristic that can assume multiple values or can vary in participants. Variables can include age, gender, body weight, alcohol consumption, attitude and many, many other attributes. Related terms included Independent and Dependent variables. © 1998- , AlleyDog.com. All material within this site is the property of All... Read more

• Ratio Scale definition | Psychology Glossary | AlleyDog.com

  Psychology Glossary

  A Ratio Scale is a measurement scale that has a numerical difference and ratios between two items. A ratio scale has a true zero which means when an item equals 0 there is none of that variable. Height, weight and length are all ratio scales. You can also use ratios when you are dealing with this type of scale because of the abs... Read more