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critical period

1. an early stage in life when an organism is especially open to specific learning, emotional, or socializing experiences that occur as part of normal development and will not recur at a later stage. For example, the first 3 days of life are thought to constitute a critical period for imprinting in ducks, and there may be a critical period for language acquisition in human infants. See also sensitive period.

2. in vision, the period of time after birth, varying from weeks (in cats) to months (in humans), in which full, binocular visual stimulation is necessary for the structural and functional maturation of the visual system. See also monocular rearing.

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Psychology term of the day

December 26th 2024

factor method

factor method

any means by which latent variables (factors) are extracted or identified in factor analysis. Widely used factor methods include principal components analysis, which seeks to find a set of linear combinations called components that help explain the correlations among variables; and principal-axis factor analysis, in which underlying dimensions or factors are sought to explain the correlations among variables after separating out communality and putting aside the error variance in a set of variables.