A statistical technique used in longitudinal research in which the relative influences of two variables upon one another are examined, while the correlations between each within time and within each across time are taken into account. More technically, it is a linear regression model where scores on at least two variables (X and Y) are …
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A coefficient of internal consistency (and strictly speaking, not a statistical test) that measures the degree to which item responses obtained on some test or instrument at the same time correlate with each other. Technically, it is the mean intercorrelation for all possible item pairs weighted by variances, and taking into account the number of …
A concept originating in embryology that referred to a time in development or growth that was most susceptible to the induction of new structures by neurochemical agents and whose effects were considered to be irreversible. Today, the term ‘sensitive period’ is generally used and applied to the development of both structure and function (e.g., learning). …
A way of teaching literacy that emphasises looking at the meanings embedded within texts and making explicit the author’s purpose in writing the text in a particular way. Teaching entails questioning the construction of texts and analysing the power of language to convey different things to different people. Students are encouraged to reflect on their …
Thinking of or acting out new and unusual ways of expression or of solving a problem, as opposed to repeating what has previously been observed or learnt from instruction. It also involves identifying a previously unrecognized problem (i.e., problem finding instead of problem solving). See Heuristic, Problem solving
A form of locomotion in which the torso is parallel to the ground and the four limbs are used for propulsion. At the start of crawling, weight is equally distributed across all four limbs in a posture such that the arms are extended downward from the shoulder at shoulder width, palms on the floor with …
An amino acid derivative that does not occur in proteins but is found in cardiac and skeletal (or striated) muscle tissue. It is a nitrogenous compound that stores energy for muscle contraction when phosphorylated. See Amino acids, Adenosine triphosphosphate (ATP), Cardiac muscle, Phosphorylation, Proteins, Striated (or striped or voluntary) muscle
Movement of tongue, supplies intrinsic muscles of tongue * Unlike other cranial nerves is sometimes included in the central nervous system, not the peripheral nervous system Each cranial nerve is given a Roman numeral, together with whether they are motor, sensory or both, and their functions reported. Some cranial nerves contribute to the same function. …
The expectancy of the cross-product of the differences of two strings of random scores from their respective means. Weighting by the strings’ respective standard deviations yields the correlation of the two strings. Thus, it is the summary of the deviations of each variable. See Pattern of variances and covariances, Variance-covariance matrix
Discovered by Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894), discussed at length by William James (1842-1910) in his Principles of psychology (1890) and subsequently contrasted with overt attention, it is the selection of targets in the absence of actual eye movements, and thus without any fixation shift to a cued location (e.g., when ‘looking out of the corner …