Glossary D

Glossary D

Discrete variable is defined as a variable whose attributes are separate from one another, or discontinuous, as in the case of gender or religious affiliation. Contrast this with Continuous variable s, in which one attribute shades off into the next. Thus, in age (a continuous variable), the attributes progress steadily from 21 to 22 to 23, and so forth, whereas there is no progression from male to female in the case of gender.

Discrete-trials design refers to a single-subject design in which two (2) or more treatment conditions are randomly alternated from one observation to the next. Discrete-trials design is also known as Alternating-treatments design.

Discretionary task refers to a relatively unstructured task that can be completed by using a variety of social-combination procedures, thus leaving the methods used in its completion to the discretion of the group or group leader.

Discriminability is generally defined as the ability to distinguish between one stimulus and another. In the Recognition-by-components theory of object perception, Discriminability is a property of geons, which indicates that each geon can be distinguished from other geons from almost all viewpoints. In item analysis, Discriminability is how well an item performs in relation to some criterion. For example, items may be compared according to how well they separate groups who score high and low on the test. The index of discrimination would then be the correlation between performance on an item and performance on the whole test.

Discriminant evidence is defined as an evidence obtained to demonstrate that a test measures something different from what other available tests measure. It is a form of construct validity evidence.

Discriminant validity is defined as the extent to which interview scores do not correlate with measures that are not theoretically related to the construct being measured; an assessment of whether a test is measuring what it was designed to measure by showing that it does not correlate with tests designed to measure different characteristics. Discriminant validity, moreover is defined as a method for establishing a test’s validity by demonstrating that its scores do not correlate with the scores of theoretically unrelated measures.

Discriminantability in the context of psychology refers to the degree to which a psychological test or assessment can effectively differentiate between different groups or categories of individuals based on the construct it intends to measure. It is a fundamental concept in psychometrics and assessment, as it assesses the test's capacity to discriminate between those who possess the trait or condition being measured and those who do not. In this article, we will explore discriminantability in detail, including examples, risks, application areas, recommendations, historical aspects, and legal considerations in psychology.

Discriminantability analysis refers to a multi-variate data analysis method for finding the linear combination of variables that best describes the classification of groups into discrete categories.