AQA GCSE Psychology key terms

The amount of output produced by workers in a given period.

Behaviour intended to help or benefit other people.

The researcher's responsibility to minimise the risk of physical and psychological harm to participants.

The physical closeness of people or things to one another.

Information expressed in non-numerical form, such as words or images, which describes experiences, meanings or qualities.

An approach that produces descriptive data, such as accounts of feelings, opinions and experiences.

Research that collects descriptive material, such as words or images, to explore experiences and meanings.

Information expressed as numerical measurements or counts, such as the number of words recalled in a memory test.

An approach that produces numerical data, such as scores, ratings or frequencies.

Research that collects numerical measurements or counts to investigate behaviour.

A self-report method that collects answers to a set of written questions.

Assigning participants to study conditions by chance to reduce systematic differences between the groups.

Using chance to decide aspects of a study, such as participants’ allocation to conditions or the order of test items.

Selecting participants so that every member of the target population has an equal chance of being chosen.

A measure of dispersion calculated by subtracting the lowest score from the highest score.

A comparison of quantities in a stated order, such as $2:3$.

Retrieving previously stored information from memory without having that information presented again.

The tendency to recall items at the end of a list better than items in the middle.

Identifying something as having been encountered before, such as selecting a previously shown colour from several alternatives.

An approach that explains a complex problem by breaking it down into simpler components or focusing on a limited mechanism.

Repeating information to keep it available in memory; in the multi-store model, rehearsal also enables transfer into long-term memory.

A return to addictive behaviour after a period of improvement or abstinence.

A monocular depth cue in which the smaller-looking of two objects of the same or similar actual size is perceived as further away.

A neuron within the central nervous system that connects other neurons, including sensory and motor neurons.

The consistency of findings when research is repeated.

A reduction in symptoms to a level below a specified threshold. In Wiles’ trial, this meant a BDI-II score below 10, not a guarantee that depression would never return.

An experimental design in which each participant takes part in every condition.