placebo effect

a clinically significant response to a therapeutically inert substance or nonspecific treatment (placebo), deriving from the recipient’s expectations or beliefs regarding the intervention. It is now recognized that placebo effects accompany the administration of any drug (active or inert) and contribute to the therapeutic effectiveness of a specific treatment. For example, patients given a placebo to relieve headaches may report statistically significant reductions in headaches in studies that compare them with patients who receive no treatment at all. This term is also used more generally in nonclinical studies to indicate any effect arising from participants’ expectations regarding the study.

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Psychology term of the day

January 22nd 2025

data analysis

the process of applying graphical, statistical, or quantitative techniques to a set of observations or measurements in order to summarize it or to find general patterns. For example, a very basic data analysis would involve calculating descriptive statistics (e.g., mean, median, mode, standard deviation) and possibly graphing the observations with a histogram or bar graph.