Ecological validity

Ecological validity is a big and fancy way of saying if something is real and true in the world we live in. It's like playing a game of dress-up and pretending to be someone else. When you're pretending, it's not the same thing as actually being that person in real life.

Scientists who study people are always thinking about whether what they're looking at is real or if they're just pretending. For example, if someone is studying how kids learn, they might get a bunch of kids to come and play a game in a lab. The lab is like a pretend world that the scientists made up just for the experiment.

But, the scientists also want to know if what they learned from the pretend game is the same thing that would happen in the real world. This is where ecological validity comes in.

To make sure the experiment has ecological validity, the scientists might try to make it as close to the real world as possible. They might bring in toys that the kids actually play with or let them play in a room that looks like a real classroom.

In summary, ecological validity is when scientists try to make their experiments as close to real life as possible to make sure they're learning something that's actually true and real.