law of similarity

1. a principle of association stating that like produces like: Encountering or thinking about something (e.g., one’s birthday month) tends to bring to mind other similar things (e.g., other people one knows with the same birthday month). The law of similarity is fundamental to associationism.

2. see similarity.

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Psychology term of the day

January 3rd 2025

noncontingent reinforcement

the process or circumstances in which a stimulus known to be effective as a reinforcer is presented independently of any particular behavior. Because contingencies may arise by accident (see accidental reinforcement), behavior-independent presentation of stimuli cannot guarantee that no contingency exists between a response and the stimuli. See reinforcement.