key-word method

a mnemonic technique sometimes used in learning foreign-language vocabulary. If the native language is English, the key word would consist of an English word associated with the sound of a foreign word and linked to the foreign word’s meaning in a mental image. For example, the French word livre (“book”) may remind an English speaker of the sound of leaf; the key word leaf can then be connected to book in a mental image, such as visualizing a leaf in a book as a bookmark.

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Psychology term of the day

December 22nd 2024

family

1. a kinship unit consisting of a group of individuals united by blood or by marital, adoptive, or other intimate ties. Although the family is the fundamental social unit of most human societies, its form and structure vary widely. See biological family; extended family; nuclear family; permeable family; stepfamily.

2. in biological taxonomy, a main subdivision of an order, consisting of a group of similar, related genera (see genus).

3. a collection of mathematically or statistically related entities. For example, a set of statistical tests conducted when there are more than two groups for an independent variable within an analysis of variance constitutes a family of tests. See also family-wise alpha level; family-wise error rate. —familial adj.