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The Concept of Ecological Validity: What Are Its Limitations and Is It Bad to Be Invalid?
Author(s) -
Lewkowicz David J.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
infancy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1532-7078
pISSN - 1525-0008
DOI - 10.1207/s15327078in0204_03
Subject(s) - ecological validity , perception , psychology , ecological psychology , convergent validity , incremental validity , cognitive psychology , ecology , test validity , psychometrics , cognition , developmental psychology , neuroscience , internal consistency , biology
The concept of ecological validity has played an important role in research on perceptual development. The limitations of this concept are discussed and illustrated with examples from research on the development of intersensory perception. By itself the concept of ecological validity fails to provide objective criteria for experimental design, but together with more traditional bottom‐up methodological approaches it can be used in a convergent operations manner to enrich our understanding of perceptual development.