The ecological validity of a test, study or experiment is the extent to which it is like the real world. Performing a controlled experiment in a laboratory would usually have low ecological validity, whereas an ethnographic study, observing people in their own workplace, would have high ecological validity.
Also used in hcistats2e: Chap. 13: pages 159, 163; Chap. 14: pages 177, 184
Also known as: ecologically meaningful, ecologically valid