Glossary P

pain disorder refers to Somatoform disorder featuring true pain but for which psychological factors play an important role in onset, severity, or maintenance.

Pain management programs refer to coordinated, interdisciplinary efforts to modify chronic pain by bringing together neurological, cognitive, behavioral, and psychodynamic expertise concerning pain. These programs aim not only to make pain more manageable but also to modify the lifestyle that has evolved because of the pain.

Pain matrix refers to the network of structures in the brain that are responsible for pain perception.

Pain-prone personality is defined as a personality type that predisposes a person to experience persistent pain. It is a constellation of personality traits that predisposes a person to experience chronic pain.

Paired comparison refers to a form of ranking in which a group of employees to be ranked are compared one pair at a time. Likewise, Paired comparison is a procedure in which a participant is first familiarized with one (1) stimulus, and then is given a choice between that stimulus and a new stimulus. Measurement of looking time indicates whether participants can tell the difference between the two (2) stimuli.

Paired-associate learning is when the subject must learn a list of paired items. The left hand item of the pair is the stimulus item and the right-hand item is the response item. The subject must learn the pairs so that when given the stimulus item, he/she can produce the response item.

Paired-associate recall refers to a memory task in which a pair of words is given, for example, mongoose- elephant, then later the first word (mangoose) is provided and the task is to recall the second word (the elephant)

Paired-associate technique is the widely used method of investigating verbal learning invented by Calkins. Pairs of stimulus material are first presented to subjects and then, after several exposures, only one member of the pair is presented and the subject is asked to recall the second.