specious present

the lived present, experienced as a distinct “moment” characterized by certain sense impressions and mental events. This sense of inhabiting a particular moment known as the present is psychologically strong but actually specious, because (a) time is continuous and ongoing and (b) the present instant is so infinitely short that it cannot be experienced. See also conscious moment; psychological moment; timeless moment. [introduced in 1882 by E. R. Clay (pseudonym for Irish-born U.S. philosopher E. Robert Kelly) and further developed by William James]

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Psychology term of the day

November 22nd 2024

population variance

(symbol: σ²) the square of the population standard deviation. It is a measure reflecting the spread (dispersion) of scores in a complete population of interest (e.g., the test scores of all students at a school).