Glossary

Search results

Anchoring Effect(also: Anchoring Bias, Cognitive Anchoring)

A cognitive bias in which people rely too heavily on an initial piece of information (the "anchor") when making subsequent decisions or judgements. In the context of digital accessibility, the anchoring effect has been documented in alt text authoring, where content authors who…

Arousal(also: Emotional Arousal, Activation)

In affect and emotion research, arousal is the dimension of emotional experience that describes activation or energy level — how calm or excited a state feels — independent of whether the emotion is positive or negative (that second dimension is valence). In the widely used…

Awe(also: Awe Experience)

Awe is an emotional response to perceived vastness — physical, conceptual, social, or spiritual — that requires a person to update their mental models to accommodate it. It blends wonder, reverence, and sometimes fear, and is associated with reduced self-focus, increased…

Barrage Test(also: Cancellation Test, Visual Search Test)

A standardized neuropsychological assessment that measures selective and sustained visual attention by requiring participants to identify and mark target items among distractors on a page. Barrage tests vary in visual complexity, with more complex versions testing the ability to…

Big Five Personality Traits(also: Big Five, Five-Factor Model, OCEAN Model)

A widely used psychological model that describes human personality along five trait dimensions: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Originally developed in personality psychology, it has been adopted in human-robot interaction…

Biophilia(also: Biophilia Hypothesis)

The hypothesis, popularized by biologist E. O. Wilson, that humans have an innate affinity for living things and natural systems, and that contact with nature is therefore a fundamental contributor to physical and psychological wellbeing. Biophilia underpins much research on…

Camouflaging(also: Masking, Social Camouflage, Autistic Masking)

Camouflaging, also known as masking, is the conscious or unconscious suppression of autistic traits and adoption of neurotypical behaviors in order to fit into social situations. This can include forcing eye contact, suppressing stimming, rehearsing social scripts, and imitating…

Circumplex Model of Emotion(also: Russell Circumplex Model, Valence-Arousal Model, Circumplex Model of Affect)

A psychological model proposed by James Russell in 1980 that arranges emotional states in a two-dimensional plane defined by valence (pleasant vs unpleasant) and arousal (activated vs calm). The four quadrants correspond to high-arousal positive (e.g. excited, happy),…

Cognitive Flexibility(also: Mental Flexibility, Set Shifting, Task Switching)

The executive function that allows a person to adapt their thinking and behavior in response to changing demands, switch between tasks, or consider multiple perspectives simultaneously. Cognitive flexibility is often challenged in autism, ADHD, and other neurodevelopmental…

Cross-modal(also: Cross-modal Correspondence, Cross-modal Perception)

The phenomenon whereby information or stimulation in one sensory modality (such as vision) systematically influences or corresponds with perception in another modality (such as hearing or touch). In accessibility contexts, cross-modal correspondences are exploited in sensory…

Digital Self-Efficacy(also: Technology Self-Efficacy, Computer Self-Efficacy)

An individual's belief in their ability to effectively use digital technologies to accomplish tasks. Digital self-efficacy influences how people approach technology challenges, persist through difficulties, and recover from errors. For people with progressive cognitive…

Dominance (Emotion)(also: Emotional Dominance, Control Dimension)

In affective science, dominance is the third dimension sometimes added to the two-dimensional valence/arousal plane to form the Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) model proposed by Mehrabian and Russell. Dominance describes the degree of control or power an emotion conveys — fear…

Dunning-Kruger Effect

A cognitive bias in which people with limited knowledge or competence in a domain overestimate their ability, while those with greater expertise tend to underestimate their relative skill. In accessibility, the Dunning-Kruger effect appears when developers or designers believe a…

Ecological Systems Theory(also: Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model, Bioecological Model)

A developmental psychology framework created by Urie Bronfenbrenner that describes how individuals are influenced by multiple nested environmental systems: the microsystem (immediate settings like home and work), mesosystem (connections between microsystems), exosystem (indirect…

Ekman Basic Emotions(also: Basic Emotions, Ekman's Six Basic Emotions)

A taxonomy proposed by psychologist Paul Ekman that identifies six cross-culturally recognisable emotional expressions — happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise — as the building blocks of facial affect. The model has been foundational for computer-vision…

Emotional Mediation Hypothesis

A theoretical account, originating in work by Palmer and colleagues, that explains cross-modal associations between sensory attributes (such as colors and musical timbres) as being mediated by shared emotional meaning rather than by direct perceptual mapping. For example, people…

Episodic Memory(also: Autobiographical Memory, Personal Experience Memory)

The memory of specific personal experiences and events, including details about what happened, where and when it occurred, and the emotions associated with it. Episodic memory allows people to mentally "travel back in time" to re-experience past events from a first-person…

Executive Function(also: Executive Functioning, Cognitive Control, Executive Control)

A set of cognitive processes that enable goal-directed behavior, including planning, working memory, attention, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Executive functions allow individuals to organize, initiate, and monitor tasks in daily living. In accessibility…

Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity to achieve external rewards, avoid punishment, or meet external expectations rather than for inherent enjoyment. In accessibility and technology design, extrinsic motivators include gamification elements like badges, points,…

Facial Action Coding System(also: FACS)

A comprehensive, anatomically based system for describing all visually discernible facial movements, originally developed by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen in 1977. FACS decomposes facial expressions into individual components called Action Units (AUs), each corresponding to the…

Facial Affect(also: Facial Expression of Emotion, Emotional Facial Expression)

The display of emotion through facial movements, including changes in the position of the eyebrows, eyes, mouth, and other facial features that communicate a person's emotional or mental state. Facial affect is a primary channel of nonverbal social communication and can convey…

Flow(also: Flow state, Optimal experience, Being in the zone)

A psychological state of complete absorption in an activity, characterized by focused concentration, loss of self-consciousness, altered sense of time, and intrinsic enjoyment. Coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow occurs when a person's skills are well-matched to…

Flow State(also: Flow, Optimal Experience, Being in the Zone)

A mental state of complete immersion and focused engagement in an activity, characterized by a balance between challenge level and skill level. In accessible design, achieving flow state is important for learning systems and games because it maximizes engagement without causing…

Flow Theory(also: Flow State, Flow)

A psychological theory proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describing the state of deep immersion and intrinsic enjoyment that occurs when a person is fully engaged in an activity whose challenge level closely matches their skill level. Flow is characterized by clear goals,…

Generalization(also: Skill Generalization, Transfer of Learning)

The ability to apply a skill or concept learned in one setting, with one set of materials, or with one person, to new settings, materials, or people. Generalization is a major focus in autism education and therapy because autistic individuals may learn a skill in a specific…

Generative Thinking(also: Generative Cognition, Creative Problem Solving)

Generative thinking is the cognitive ability to spontaneously produce novel ideas, solutions, or approaches to problems without external prompting. In the context of autism and cognitive accessibility, generative thinking is significant because it is often considered impaired in…

Goal-Setting Theory

A motivational theory developed by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham proposing that setting specific, challenging goals leads to higher performance than vague or easy goals. In the context of ADHD support, goal-setting theory underpins features in body doubling platforms like…

Grounding(also: Grounding Techniques, Grounding Exercises, Self-Regulation)

A set of therapeutic and coping techniques used to help a person reconnect with the present moment and their physical surroundings during periods of emotional distress, anxiety, or trauma response. Grounding activities aim to strengthen the connection between mind and body and…

Inattentional Blindness(also: Perceptual Blindness)

Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully visible but unexpected object or feature when attention is directed elsewhere. It is distinct from change blindness (failure to notice a change between two views): inattentional blindness is about missing something that…

Inhibitory Control(also: Response Inhibition, Impulse Control)

The executive function that enables a person to suppress automatic or impulsive responses in favor of more appropriate, goal-directed behavior. Inhibitory control is essential for tasks requiring sustained focus, turn-taking, and resisting distractions. It is commonly affected…

Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale(also: IDP Scale, IDP)

A standardized 20-item attitudinal instrument developed by Gething and Wheeler (1992) and later validated by Forlin, Fogarty, and Caroll (1999), designed to measure both desirable and undesirable emotions that people experience when interacting with individuals who have…

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for external rewards or consequences. In accessibility and inclusive design, understanding intrinsic motivation is crucial for creating technologies that people genuinely want to…

Joint Attention(also: Shared Attention)

The shared focus of two or more individuals on the same object or event, typically involving one person directing another's attention through gaze, gesture, or verbal cues. Joint attention is a foundational social-cognitive skill that develops in early childhood and is often…

Learned Helplessness

A psychological condition in which a person comes to believe they are unable to perform tasks or control outcomes, often resulting from prolonged over-assistance or lack of opportunity to attempt tasks independently. In disability contexts, learned helplessness can develop when…

Loss Aversion

A cognitive bias in which people experience the pain of losing something more intensely than the pleasure of gaining something of equal value. In the context of technology accessibility and aging, loss aversion significantly influences older adults' adoption of digital tools,…

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs(also: Maslow's Hierarchy, Hierarchy of Needs)

A motivational theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow that organises human needs into a hierarchical pyramid, from basic physiological needs at the base through safety, social belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation at the top. The theory proposes that lower-level…

Metacognition(also: Thinking About Thinking, Meta-Cognitive Awareness)

The awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes, including the ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate one's cognitive strategies during learning or problem-solving. In accessibility, supporting metacognition through design means providing tools and cues that help…

Multiple Resource Theory(also: Wickens Multiple Resource Model)

A cognitive psychology theory proposed by Christopher Wickens that explains how humans allocate attention across concurrent tasks. The theory posits that humans have separate pools of cognitive resources for different modalities (visual vs. auditory), processing stages…

Musical Emotion(also: Music-Induced Emotion, Emotional Response to Music)

The emotional content perceived in, or felt in response to, a piece of music, typically analysed along dimensions such as valence and arousal or via categorical labels (cheerful, tense, calm, sad, energetic, love, dreamy). Musical emotion arises from low-level acoustic…

N-back Task(also: N-back, 2-back Task)

A working-memory paradigm in which participants view or hear a sequence of stimuli (letters, digits, positions) and, on each trial, respond when the current stimulus matches the one presented N steps earlier. Higher N levels place greater load on working memory and executive…

Nature Relatedness(also: Nature Relatedness Scale, NRS, Nature Connectedness)

A psychological construct describing the strength of a person's affective, cognitive, and experiential connection to the natural world. It is most often measured with the 21-item Nature Relatedness Scale (NRS) developed by Nisbet, Zelenski, and Murphy, which yields three…

Operant Conditioning(also: Instrumental Conditioning, Operant Learning)

A learning process in which behaviour is modified by its consequences — specifically, by reinforcement (rewards that increase the likelihood of the behaviour) or punishment (consequences that decrease it). In accessibility research and clinical assessment, operant conditioning…

Perceptual Integration(also: Perceptual Binding)

The process by which the brain combines information arriving through different sensory channels — vision, hearing, touch, proprioception — into a single coherent percept of an object or event. Perceptual integration depends on temporal synchrony (cues arriving within roughly 100…

Personal Space(also: Interpersonal Distance, Personal Distance Zone)

The invisible boundary surrounding a person that they consider their own territory, the violation of which can cause discomfort or stress. Research by Edward T. Hall defined four distance zones: intimate (0-18 inches), personal (18 inches to 4 feet), social (4-12 feet), and…

Physical Agency(also: Bodily Agency, Sense of Agency)

The feeling of control and ownership over physical actions and their effects in the world. In assistive technology contexts, physical agency refers to a users sense of directly controlling objects and receiving sensory confirmation of their actions. Traditional AT designs often…

Place Attachment(also: Sense of Place)

Place attachment is the emotional and cognitive bond a person forms with a particular location — a home, neighbourhood, city, or landscape — built up through memory, repeated experience, social ties, and meaning-making. It is studied in environmental psychology, urban planning,…

Planning Fallacy

A well-documented cognitive bias, identified by Kahneman and Tversky and elaborated by Buehler and colleagues, in which people systematically underestimate how long their own tasks will take and overestimate how much they can finish, even when they have direct evidence that…

Proteus Effect

The Proteus Effect is a phenomenon, first described by Yee and Bailenson (2007), in which the appearance of a person's avatar influences how they think, behave and interact in virtual or augmented environments. For example, users assigned taller or more attractive avatars tend…

Restorative Environment(also: Restorative Setting)

An environment—physical or virtual—that promotes psychological recovery from mental fatigue and stress. Based on Attention Restoration Theory, restorative environments typically feature natural elements (water, vegetation, wildlife), scenic views, and low-demand fascination that…

Satisficing

A decision-making strategy where users select the first option that appears "good enough" rather than evaluating all possibilities to find the optimal choice. Coined by Herbert Simon, satisficing is common in web navigation, especially among older adults and users with cognitive…