concurrent-chains procedure

a procedure in which completion of either of two concurrent schedules of reinforcement, called the initial links, results in presentation of another schedule of reinforcement, called a terminal link, rather than primary reinforcement itself. Completion of the terminal-link schedule results in primary reinforcement. The initial links are concurrently available, in effect giving the organism an opportunity to choose between two terminal links. Once a terminal link is earned, however, it must be completed before the next period of choosing is made available.

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Psychology term of the day

March 17th 2025

z -score transformation

a statistical procedure used to convert raw data into z scores, dimensionless quantities that may be interpreted without reference to the original units of measurement. It is performed by subtracting the reference value (the sample average) from each data point and dividing the difference by the standard deviation of the sample.