Glossary

Glossary of paranormal study & research terms used both on and off this site.

There are 133 entries in this glossary.

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D

Term	Definition
data	information collected by a researcher. (Data is the plural term; datum the singular). Data are often thought of as statistical or quantitative, but they may take many other forms as well--such as transcripts of interviews or videotapes of social interactions. Nonquantitative data such as transcripts or videotapes are often coded or translated into numbers to make them easier to analyze.
data set	a collection of related data items, such as answers given by respondents to all questions on a survey.
Decline Effect	A decrease in performance on a psi test when the test is repeated.
Delta	A term used to refer to any kind of anomalous experience
dependent variable	The presumed effect in a study; so called because it "depends" on another variable. The variable whose values are predicted by the independent variable, whether or not caused by it. For example, in a study to see if there is a relationship between students' drinking of alcoholic beverages and their grade point averages, the drinking behavior would be the presumed cause (independent variable); the grade point average would be the effect (dependent variable).
Deport	The paranormal movement of objects out of a secure enclosed space.
descriptive statistics	statistics that summarize a data set, e.g., mean, median, mode, standard deviation
Dice Test	Experimental techniques for investigating psychokinesis, in which a subject attempts to influence the fall of dice.
Displacement	Responses on a psi test that correspond systematically to targets other than the intended one (e.g., those before or after).
Double Blind	An experimental procedure in which neither the subject nor experimenter is aware of key features of the experiment.
Down through Technique (DT)	An experimental test for clairvoyance in which the person guesses the order of a stacked series of target symbols (e.g., cards) from top to bottom.

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