three-term contingency

specification of the stimulus circumstances, the response, and the outcome in a reinforcement contingency. It is formulated as S^D:R → S^R or denoted ABC (for antecedent, behavior, and consequence).

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Psychology term of the day

February 16th 2025

compensatory mechanism

a cognitive process that is used to offset a cognitive weakness. For example, someone who is weaker in spatial abilities than in verbal abilities might use compensatory mechanisms to attempt to solve spatial problems, such as mentally rotating a geometric figure by using verbal processes. The underlying theory is that intelligence partly consists of finding ways to compensate for the skills that one has lost over time or in which one was not adept in the first place.