rationalist position n
another term for innatist hypothesis
ratio scale n
see scale
raw score n
(in testing and statistics) a score that is presented in terms of its original
numerical value, not converted into some other value. For example, raw
scores may be the number of correct answers in a test, or, in some cases, the
number of errors. Usually it is necessary to convert such values into per-
centages, percentiles, ranks, or some other form (e.g. standard scores),
in order to make the scores easier to interpret.
r-colouring n
a phenomenon that occurs when a vowel preceding the consonant /r/, as in
the English word hurt, anticipates and glides towards the central /r/ position
and takes on some of the retroflex quality of /r/.
see also rhoticization, assimilation
reaction time n
the time between the presentation of a stimulus (for example, a word or
pseudo-word) and a subject’s response (for example, deciding whether the
stimulus is a real word or not, in a lexical decision task).
readability n
how easily written materials can be read and understood. Readability
depends on many factors, including (a) the average length of sentences in a
passage (b) the number of new words a passage contains (c) the grammatical
complexity of the language used. Procedures used for measuring readability
are known as “readability formulae”.
see also lexical density
reader-based prose n
writing in which the audience is another person rather than the writer him-
self or herself. Inexperienced writers are often said to choose themselves
as audience for their writing, producing writer-based prose or egocentric
writing, rather than providing the background knowledge, information
and organization that other readers may need. In the composing process,
writers often begin with writer-based prose and then revise it to make it
easier for another reader to read, that is, to make it reader-based. There are
rationalist position