frequency distribution

a tabular representation of the number of times a specific value or datum point occurs. The left column lists the different categories of a categorical variable or scores of a continuous variable, and the right column lists the number of occurrences of each. When a frequency distribution is plotted on a graph, it is often called a frequency curve, frequency diagram, or frequency polygon. When represented mathematically via an equation, it is called a frequency function. Also called frequency table. See also cumulative frequency distribution; relative frequency distribution.

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Psychology term of the day

November 18th 2024

co-occurrence

n. a relation between two or more phenomena (objects or events) such that they tend to occur together. For example, thunder co-occurs with lightning, and in English the letter Q typically co-occurs with the letter U. By itself, co-occurrence does not imply a causal link: For co-occurrence to become covariation, there must be a systematic correlation between both the occurrence of the phenomena and their nonoccurrence. —co-occur vb.