Glossary

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Savoring

An emotion-regulation strategy involving the mindful noticing, appreciating, and intensifying of positive experiences — past, present, or anticipated future — to support subjective wellbeing. Savoring differs from general reminiscence in its deliberate focus on amplifying…

Selective Attention(also: Focused Attention)

The cognitive ability to focus on a specific stimulus or task while filtering out irrelevant distractions. In accessibility and inclusive design, understanding selective attention is critical for creating interfaces that minimize cognitive overload, reduce visual clutter, and…

Self-Assessment Manikin(also: SAM)

A nonverbal pictorial instrument developed by Bradley and Lang (1994) for measuring the affective dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance. Respondents select from a row of stylised manikin figures whose expressions and body states vary along each dimension, typically on a…

Self-Determination(also: Autonomy, Self-Determination Theory)

The right and ability of individuals to make choices and decisions about their own lives, bodies, and futures without external coercion or control. In disability rights, self-determination is a core principle affirming that disabled people should have agency over their own care,…

Self-Determination Theory(also: SDT)

A psychological framework identifying three innate human needs — autonomy (feeling in control of one's actions), competence (feeling effective and capable), and relatedness (feeling connected to others) — that drive intrinsic motivation and well-being. In accessibility and…

Self-Efficacy

A person's belief in their own ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish particular tasks. In workplace inclusion contexts, self-efficacy is an important outcome measure for assistive technology interventions — technologies should not only help workers complete…

Self-Regulation(also: Self-Management, Behavioral Regulation)

The ability to monitor and manage one's own emotions, behavior, and cognitive processes to achieve goals. Self-regulation encompasses emotional regulation, attentional control, and behavioral inhibition. In accessibility contexts, designing for self-regulation means creating…

Social Cognitive Theory(also: SCT, Social learning theory)

A psychological framework developed by Albert Bandura that explains how people learn through observing others, building self-efficacy, and interacting with their social environment. In the context of accessibility and digital literacy, SCT provides a foundation for designing…

Social Proof

A psychological and behavioural phenomenon in which people rely on the choices, ratings, and reviews of others as evidence when making decisions under uncertainty. In digital accessibility contexts, social proof becomes especially load-bearing for users who cannot independently…

Socially Recursive Inference(also: Social Recursion)

The cognitive process by which individuals' perceptions and behaviors are shaped by what they believe others think about them or their situation. In accessibility contexts, socially recursive inference manifests when AT users are influenced by what they think non-disabled people…

Sociocultural Learning Theory(also: Sociocultural Theory, Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory)

A theory of learning developed by Lev Vygotsky that argues cognitive development and knowledge acquisition are fundamentally social, mediated by language, culture, and interaction with more knowledgeable others. Key concepts include the zone of proximal development (the gap…

Sustained Attention(also: Vigilance, Continuous Attention)

The ability to maintain focus on a task or stimulus over an extended period of time. Sustained attention is a core executive function that can be impaired in conditions such as ADHD, traumatic brain injury, and various neurodevelopmental disorders. Designing for sustained…

Technophobia(also: Technology Anxiety, Computer Anxiety)

An irrational fear or anxiety about using technology, often manifesting as avoidance of computers, smartphones, or websites. Technophobia can stem from negative past experiences, fear of making mistakes, concerns about privacy and security, or feeling overwhelmed by rapidly…

Theory of Mind(also: ToM, Mentalizing, Mind Reading)

The cognitive ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intentions, desires, emotions, knowledge—to oneself and others, and to understand that others may have mental states different from one's own. Theory of Mind deficits are associated with autism spectrum disorder and…

Tower of Hanoi(also: Tower of Hanoi Task, Tower Task)

The Tower of Hanoi is a classic cognitive assessment puzzle used in neuropsychology and educational research to measure multi-step planning and executive function abilities. The task requires moving a set of discs or objects from one position to another according to specific…

Transitional Object(also: Comfort Object)

A concept from developmental psychology, introduced by D. W. Winnicott, referring to a soft, often tactile object - a blanket, stuffed toy, or similar - that a child uses to support self-soothing and the transition between dependence on a caregiver and independent experience.…

Unity Assumption

A concept from multisensory-perception research (Welch and Warren, 1980; Welch, 1999) describing the observer's implicit judgement that signals arriving through different senses originate from the same underlying event or object. When the unity assumption holds, the brain fuses…

Valence(also: Emotional Valence, Hedonic Tone)

In affective science, valence is the dimension of emotional experience that describes positivity versus negativity — whether a feeling is pleasant or unpleasant. Paired with arousal, valence forms the basis of the widely used two-dimensional circumplex model of emotion:…

Valence-Arousal Model(also: VA Model, Circumplex Model, Valence-Arousal Space)

A two-dimensional model of affect, introduced by Russell (1980), that represents emotional states along two orthogonal axes: valence (pleasant versus unpleasant) and arousal (activated versus deactivated). Emotions such as cheerful, tense, calm, and sad map to the four quadrants…

Zeigarnik Effect

A psychological phenomenon identified by Bluma Zeigarnik in 1927 describing the tendency for people to remember interrupted or incomplete tasks better than completed ones. The effect explains why partially finished challenges, multi-level games, and serialized learning modules…

Zone of Proximal Development(also: ZPD)

A concept from educational psychologist Lev Vygotsky describing the range of tasks that a learner can perform with the assistance of a more competent individual (scaffolding) but cannot yet perform independently. The ZPD lies between the zone of actual development (what the…