error rate

the frequency with which errors are made. Examples include the proportion of an experimenter’s data recordings that are wrong or the number of Type I errors that occur during significance testing.

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Psychology term of the day

September 10th 2024

modularity

n. a theory of the human mind in which the various components of cognition are characterized as independent modules, each with its own specific domain and particular properties. It was first proposed by U.S. philosopher Jerry Fodor (1935– ) in his book The Modularity of Mind (1983). A related notion had earlier been advanced by Noam Chomsky in his theory of the task specificity of language, which characterizes the human language faculty as a unique “mental organ” differing qualitatively from other aspects of cognition. More recently, evolutionary psychologists have shown interest in the idea that the various modules may be adaptive specializations. Compare cognitive grammar.