taker on a test has a certain raw score, which varies depending on which
norm groupthis test taker’s raw score is compared to.
see also distribution, percentile scorepercentile rankn
another term for percentile score
percentile scoren
also percentile rank
a term indicating the percentage of all the test takers in the norm group
who scored below theraw score one test taker has received. It is used to
describe a test taker’s relative position with respect to all other test takers
in a distribution. For example, if a test taker is said to have an 95th-
percentile score on a test (or to be at the 95th percentile), it means that this
person scored higher than 95% of the test takers in the norm group or is
among the top 5% of all test takers. On most tests, the higher one’s percentile
score, the better. Percentile scores are used in the norm referenced testing
context, whereas percentage scores(i.e. the percentage of items answered
correctly) are used in the criterion-referenced testing context.
see also percentile
perceptionn
the recognition and understanding of events, objects, and stimuli through the
use of senses (sight, hearing, touch, etc.). Several different types of perception
are distinguished:
aVisual perception:the perception of visual information and stimuli.
bAuditory perception:the perception of information and stimuli received
through the ears. Auditory perception requires a listener to detect different
kinds of acoustic signals, and to judge differences between them according
to differences in such acoustic characteristics as their frequency, ampli-
tude, duration, order of occurrence, and rate of presentation.
c Speech perception:the understanding or comprehension of speech
(see chunking, heuristic (2)).
perceptual saliencen
another term for salience
perfectn
also perfective
(in grammar) an aspectwhich shows a relationship between one state or
event and a later state, event, or time. In English the perfect is formed from
the auxiliary verb have and the past participle. For example:
perfect