Find over 25,000 psychological definitions


independent events

the situation in which observing one event does not provide any additional information about the occurrence or outcome of another event. For example, the outcome of a coin flip and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are independent events, whereas the temperatures of two consecutive days are not necessarily independent. Formally, two events, A and B, are independent if the probability of event A is the same as the conditional probability of event A given event B, that is, P(A) = P(A|B), or equivalently, P(B) = P(B|A). Compare dependent events.

Browse dictionary by letter

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Psychology term of the day

May 9th 2024

postural aftereffect

postural aftereffect

a change in posture that arises as an aftereffect of prior stimulation. For example, when viewing a moving scene, a person typically leans in the direction of the motion. When viewing ends, body posture returns to a vertical position and then, briefly, leans in the opposite direction.