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expectation

n.

1. a state of tense, emotional anticipation.

2. in probability and statistics, the long-term average of a random variable. For example, the expectation is that the mean for a specific random variable obtained with an extremely large sample will equal the mean of the population of interest. Also called expectancy. See expected value.

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Psychology term of the day

February 28th 2025

common metric

common metric

a unit or scale of measurement that is applied to data from different sources. In a meta-analysis, for instance, the results from multiple studies may need to be placed on a common metric so that they may be meaningfully compared.