How to Start Your Own Glossary

Keywords/Glossary of terms

Cognition: mental processes such as thinking, perception, learning, and memory.

Variable: A variable is any factor, trait, or condition that can exist in differing amounts or can take on different values.

Experiment: a procedure where an experimenter manipulates a variable under controlled conditions & observes whether changes occur in a second variable

Random assignment: In random assignment, participants are allocated to different groups on a chance basis.  

Independent variables (IVs): These are variables that the experimenter manipulates.  There may be one or several independent variables in a single experiment. For example: time exercised for in our class experiment and there were three levels of this IV (such as: control group, 1 minute air cycling and 2 minutes air cycling).

Dependent variables (DVs): These are variables that the experimenter measures to see if the manipulation of the independent variable has had an effect. For example: Cognitive performance on the letter-detection task.

Extraneous variables: These are variables that are not of central interest but ones that may affect the DV, and therefore need to be controlled by the experimenter.

Hypothesis: a tentative statement about the way two (or more) factors impact each other. A prediction of the results of an experiment.

Neuron: a specialized cell transmitting nerve impulses; a nerve cell.

T-test: a statistical analysis that compares the difference between two groups and shows whether the means are statistically different

Ideas to create more key terms

1. Review terms and answers from the weekly quizzes
2. Look in the lecture notes and textbook
3. Take it one step further and add examples!

1. For example, under “neuron”, consider including an image of a neuron and labelling its parts