fractional factorial design

a type of experimental design in which some conditions are omitted, such that not all levels of one or more of the independent variables are combined with all other levels of the other variables. A Latin square is an example. Fractional factorial designs might be used because of a small overall sample available for study or because of difficulty obtaining participants or assigning them to some conditions. Additionally, there may simply be too many combinations to study (e.g., in a 3 × 4 × 2 × 5 design, there are 120 combinations of levels). Also called incomplete factorial design. Compare complete factorial design.

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Psychology term of the day

December 25th 2024

bivariate distribution

a distribution showing each possible combination of values for two random variables according to their probability of occurrence. For example, a bivariate distribution may show the probability of obtaining specific pairs of heights and weights among college students. Also called bivariate probability distribution.