In SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY obedience often has the particular connotation of conformity to an authority.

In STATISTICS, it is the MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY which divides a group of scores in half, with half the scores falling above the median score and half below.

A form of paralysis often accompanied by trembling.

Tricks to aid the MEMORY.

Direct communication between people by a means other than the spoken word; includes facial expressions. GESTURES, eye contact and body posture.

A distorted visual PERCEPTION of length. Named after the German psychologist Franz Muller-Lyer.

Relating to the constituent parts of an activity (e.g. the head. arm and leg movements in swimming) rather than the activity as a whole. Contrast with MOLAR.

See ENGRAM.

The part of the CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM linking the BRAIN and the spinal cord. It helps regulate bodily processes such as blood pressure, heart rate and breathing.

According to FREUD this is the first STAGE in an infant’s life when he is mainly concerned with the pleasure he receives from his mouth and its functions. As with all Freud’s stages, excessive frustration or satisfaction may leave a person fixated on it with the eventual result that, in this case, as an adult he may exhibit an oral character typified by a great need for oral stimulation in the form of food, drink, cigarettes or even talking especially perhaps when making biting comments.