Find over 25,000 psychological definitions


John Henry effect

an effect in which rivalry between a control group and an experimental group leads to competitive efforts that disturb the whole basis of the experiment. It is a particular danger in industrial psychology experiments that attempt to compare the outputs of groups working under different task conditions. The term derives from the legend of John Henry, a railroad steel driver who worked himself to death with a steam drill.

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

July 27th 2024

script

script

n.

1. a cognitive schematic structure—a mental road map—containing the basic actions (and their temporal and causal relations) that comprise a complex action. Also called script schema.

2. a structured representation consisting of a sequence of conceptual dependencies grouped together to capture the semantic relationships implicit in everyday human situations. It was designed for the purpose of computer-based story understanding. [created in 1966 by U.S. cognitive and computer scientist Roger C. Schank (1946–  ) and U.S. psychologist Robert P. Abelson (1928–2005)]

3. see prescription drug.

4. see script analysis.