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factor analysis

(FA) a broad family of mathematical procedures for reducing a set of interrelations among manifest variables to a smaller set of unobserved latent variables or factors. For example, a number of tests of mechanical ability might be intercorrelated to enable factor analysis to reduce them to a few factors, such as fine motor coordination, speed, and attention. See confirmatory factor analysis; exploratory factor analysis; principal components analysis.

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Psychology term of the day

September 8th 2024

number

number

n. in linguistics, a grammatical classification of nouns, pronouns, and any words in agreement with them according to whether they are singular or plural (or in some languages, dual). In English, number is most commonly expressed by the plural noun ending -s (e.g., boy, boys) and in the inflection of the verb to agree with the number of the subject (e.g., The boy runs; The boys run).