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novelty

n. the quality of being new and unusual. It is one of the major determining factors directing attention. The attraction to novelty has been shown to begin as early as 1 year of age; for example, when infants are shown pictures of visual patterns, they will stare longer at a new pattern than at a pattern they have already seen. In consumer behavior, the attraction to novelty is manifested as a desire for a change, even in the absence of dissatisfaction with the present situation. For example, despite satisfaction with a particular product, many consumers will switch to a different brand just because it is new.

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Psychology term of the day

January 30th 2025

critical region

critical region

a range of values that may be obtained from a statistical procedure that would lead to rejecting a specific claim about a population. More specifically, it is the portion of a probability distribution containing the values for a test statistic that would result in rejection of a null hypothesis in favor of its corresponding alternative hypothesis. Also called rejection region. Compare acceptance region.