Child Care and Early Education Research Connections

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The research glossary defines terms used in conducting social science and policy research, for example those describing methods, measurements, statistical procedures, and other aspects of research; the child care glossary defines terms used to describe aspects of child care and early education practice and policy.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Z
Nonsampling Error
Errors that can affect the accuracy of research findings other than errors associated with selecting the sample (sampling error). They can occur in any phase of a research study (planning and design, data collection, or data processing). They include errors that occur when units in the target population are missing from the sampling frame, coverage error, nonresponse to surveys, measurement errors due to interviewer or respondent behavior, errors introduced by how survey questions were worded or by how data were collected (e.g., in-person interview, web survey), and processing error (e.g., errors made during data entry or when coding open-ended survey responses).
Nonsignificant Result
The result of a statistical test that indicates that there is not sufficient evidence to conclude that the predictor (independent) variable had an impact on the outcome (dependent) variable.
Normal Curve
The bell-shaped curve that is formed when data with a normal distribution are plotted.
Normal Distribution
A distribution of the frequency of data points that resembles a bell shape. In a normal distribution, one half of the data points (e.g., scores on a standardized test) are above and one half are below the mean or median of the full set of data. The further a data point is from the mean/median, the less likely it is to occur. And, the closer it is, the more likely it is to occur. The normal distribution exhibits important mathematical properties that are necessary for performing most statistical tests (e.g., data have a normal distribution or are at least symmetrical with half of the values above and half below the mean or median).
Null Hypothesis
This hypothesis states that there is no difference between groups. The alternative hypothesis states that there is some real difference between two or more groups.
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