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Primary Mental Abilities Primary Mental Abilities refer to 7 factors identified by Louis Leon Thurstone. These 7 factors, or primary mental abilities,…

Primary Disorder A primary disorder is the first disorder (sometimes called a “condition”) or most prevalent diagnosed condition, i.e. the condition that…

Primacy Effect This is the tendency for the first items presented in a series to be remembered better or more easily, or…

Preoperational Thought (Pre-Operational Thought) In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the second stage is called Preoperational Thought. During this stage, which occurs…

Prepositional Reasoning Piaget suggests that most children enter the final stage of cognitive development around 12 years of age. It is at…

Preoperational Stage The preoperational Stage is one of Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development. Infants between the ages of 18 and 24…

Premack Principle This is a principle of Operant Conditioning originally identified by David Premack in 1965. According to this principle, some behavior…

Predictive Validity The relationship between test scores and later performance on knowledge, skill or ability. SATs are said to have predictive validity;…

Preconventional Level The first level of Kohlberg’s moral development taxonomy where individuals’ ethical principles are guided by the consequences of the action…

Preconscious The preconscious, according to Freud, is the area that lies between conscious awareness and the unconscious. When thoughts are in the…