Ecological validity

How it is used

Use when judging the realism of a task or setting.

Example sentences

1. The silent laboratory may reduce ecological validity for a study of busy classrooms.

   The setting lacks the noise of the target situation.

2. Using actual shopping lists improved the task's ecological validity.

   The material more closely resembles everyday activity.

Common collocations

• improve ecological validity
• low ecological validity

Related terms

• validityThe extent to which a study or instrument really measures what it claims to measure and supports the conclusions drawn from it.
• generalizabilityThe extent to which the findings of a study can be applied to other people, places or situations beyond the sample studied.

More terms: Research Design

• research
• research question
• hypothesis
• methodology
• qualitative
• quantitative
• sample
• participant
• questionnaire
• case study
• carry out
• reliability