interˈvening, ppl. a.
[f. intervene v. + -ing2.]
1. gen. That intervenes.
| 1646 H. Lawrence Comm. Angells 50 All the intervening Mediums. c 1709 Prior Charity 37 As through the artist's intervening glass Our eye observes the distant planets pass. 1783 Watson Philip III (1839) 57 In the intervening night a dreadful storm arose. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geog. vi. 304 Separated from each other by deep intervening oceans. |
2. Psychol., intervening variable, a factor, such as individual memory, desire, or habit, which may affect the results of psychological tests or experiments in a way which is hard to predict.
| 1935 E. C. Tolman in Philos. of Sci. II. 365 The nature of this their resulting behavior is determined by a set of intervening variables to be conceived as lying in the organism... The molar behaviorist seeks to state the intervening variables as specific types of behavior-readiness. 1951 Mind LX. 50 The methodological device of the ‘intervening variable’ (drive, habit, demand, etc.). 1963 A. Pap Introd. Philos. of Sci. v. xx. 383 Human behavior also has mental determinants, such factors as memories, expectations, desires, [etc.]. But since these ‘intervening variables’ were supposed to be inaccessible to scientific investigation, the tendency developed to interpret them as certain dispositions to overt behavior. |