# Mappa

> Mappa uses voice AI and behavioral science to measure fit, performance, and retention in hiring.

## Core pages

- [Home](https://mappa.ai/): AI hiring platform for fit, performance, and retention.
- [Behavioral science glossary](https://mappa.ai/glossary): Definitions for traits, instruments, models, and hiring terms behind Mappa's behavioral assessment.
- [Behavior profile](https://mappa.ai/behavior-profile): Free behavior profile flow.

## Glossary terms

### Foundational concepts

- [Instrument](https://mappa.ai/glossary/instrument): An instrument is a measurement tool, usually a set of questions, whose properties have been tested and published rather than simply assumed to work.
- [Behavior](https://mappa.ai/glossary/behavior): Behavior is what a person actually does: an observable action, in a specific situation, at a specific time.
- [Personality](https://mappa.ai/glossary/personality): Personality is the relatively stable pattern of traits, and the characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, that distinguish one person from another across situations and over time.
- [Character](https://mappa.ai/glossary/character): Character is the part of a person's makeup most tied to moral and ethical conduct: honesty, integrity, and how they treat people when it costs them something.
- [Compatibility](https://mappa.ai/glossary/compatibility): Compatibility is how well two people, or a person and an environment, are likely to work together, and it's measurable, not a gut feeling.
- [General cognitive ability](https://mappa.ai/glossary/general-cognitive-ability): General cognitive ability, often shortened to g, is the broad mental capacity underlying performance across cognitive tasks: reasoning, problem-solving, and speed of learning.
- [Emotional intelligence](https://mappa.ai/glossary/emotional-intelligence): Emotional intelligence is the capacity to perceive, understand, and manage emotions in oneself and others, with important differences between ability EI and trait EI.
- [Grit](https://mappa.ai/glossary/grit): Grit is perseverance and sustained passion toward long-term goals, a construct popularized by Angela Duckworth and measured with the Grit Scale.
- [Growth mindset](https://mappa.ai/glossary/growth-mindset): Growth mindset is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort, as distinct from a fixed mindset.
- [Locus of control](https://mappa.ai/glossary/locus-of-control): Locus of control is the degree to which a person believes outcomes result from their own actions versus external forces like luck or other people.
- [Self-efficacy](https://mappa.ai/glossary/self-efficacy): Self-efficacy is a person's belief in their capacity to execute the actions needed to achieve a specific goal, distinct from general confidence.
- [Core self-evaluations](https://mappa.ai/glossary/core-self-evaluations): Core self-evaluations combine self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability into a higher-order disposition.
- [Need for cognition](https://mappa.ai/glossary/need-for-cognition): Need for cognition is a person's tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful thinking, distinct from raw cognitive ability.
- [Psychological safety](https://mappa.ai/glossary/psychological-safety): Psychological safety is a team-level belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks, speak up, admit mistakes, or challenge ideas without fear of punishment.
- [Regulatory focus](https://mappa.ai/glossary/regulatory-focus): Regulatory focus distinguishes promotion focus, oriented toward gains and ideals, from prevention focus, oriented toward avoiding losses and meeting obligations.

### Psychometrics

- [Behavioral trait](https://mappa.ai/glossary/behavioral-trait): A behavioral trait is a stable tendency to act a certain way across different situations, not a mood, one-off action, or fixed label.
- [Factor and facet](https://mappa.ai/glossary/factor-and-facet): A factor is a broad personality dimension; facets are its more specific components.
- [Construct](https://mappa.ai/glossary/construct): A construct is the underlying thing a measure is trying to capture, something inferred from behavior and answers rather than observed directly.
- [Item](https://mappa.ai/glossary/item): An item is a single question or statement within a psychometric instrument, and the unit psychometrics analyzes before any total score.
- [Latent trait](https://mappa.ai/glossary/latent-trait): A latent trait is the underlying quantity that a set of survey answers is trying to estimate, distinct from the raw answers themselves.
- [Item response theory](https://mappa.ai/glossary/item-response-theory): Item response theory, or IRT, models how each individual item behaves rather than averaging all answers as if they carried equal information.
- [Norming](https://mappa.ai/glossary/norming): Norming places a raw score on an interpretable scale by comparing it to a reference population.
- [Reliability](https://mappa.ai/glossary/reliability): Reliability is whether a measure gives a consistent result when the same person is measured more than once under similar conditions.
- [Validity](https://mappa.ai/glossary/validity): Validity is the evidence that an assessment measures what it claims to measure and that its scores actually relate to the outcomes it is used to predict.
- [Self-report bias](https://mappa.ai/glossary/self-report-bias): Self-report bias is the tendency for people to describe themselves the way they wish to be seen rather than with full accuracy.
- [Social desirability](https://mappa.ai/glossary/social-desirability): Social desirability is the pull toward giving flattering, well-regarded answers rather than fully honest ones on a self-report questionnaire.
- [Scale direction](https://mappa.ai/glossary/scale-direction): Scale direction is whether a higher score indicates something desirable, something to be cautious about, or neither, depending on context.

### Hiring outcomes

- [First-year retention](https://mappa.ai/glossary/first-year-retention): First-year retention is whether a new hire is still in the role a year after starting, one common outcome for evaluating whether a hire worked out.
- [The five conditions](https://mappa.ai/glossary/the-five-conditions): A hire that lasts tends to satisfy five conditions at once: performance, colleague and manager fit, endurance under pressure, motivation to stay, and no hidden trust-eroding trait.
- [Job performance](https://mappa.ai/glossary/job-performance): Job performance is how well someone does the actual work of a role, distinct from whether they are satisfied in it or intend to stay.
- [Job and supervisor satisfaction](https://mappa.ai/glossary/job-and-supervisor-satisfaction): Job and supervisor satisfaction describe how content someone is with their work and with the specific person they report to.
- [Counterproductive work behavior](https://mappa.ai/glossary/counterproductive-work-behavior): Counterproductive work behavior is behavior that damages an organization or the people in it, the outcome most closely tied to workplace risk and trust.
- [Screening cut-off](https://mappa.ai/glossary/screening-cut-off): A screening cut-off is the threshold at which a decision changes, the point on a score where someone moves from one outcome to another.
- [Base rate](https://mappa.ai/glossary/base-rate): A base rate is how common an outcome is in the population being studied, and it changes what an accuracy figure means.
- [Fit](https://mappa.ai/glossary/fit): Fit is the measured match between how a person tends to behave and what a specific role and team actually require, not whether an interviewer liked them.
- [Performance](https://mappa.ai/glossary/performance): Performance, as a hiring outcome, is the prediction of how well someone will do the job, made before they start, from traits tied to on-the-job results.
- [Retention](https://mappa.ai/glossary/retention): Retention is the likelihood that a hire stays and stays engaged past the first year, predicted from the match between their motivations and what the role can offer.
- [Job-relevant behavior](https://mappa.ai/glossary/job-relevant-behavior): Job-relevant behavior is conduct that has a demonstrable relationship to doing a specific job well, the only kind of behavior a fair assessment should weigh.
- [Structured interview](https://mappa.ai/glossary/structured-interview): A structured interview asks every candidate the same job-relevant questions, in the same order, and scores answers against the same rubric.
- [Adverse impact](https://mappa.ai/glossary/adverse-impact): Adverse impact is when a hiring practice, even a neutral-seeming one, selects candidates from one protected group at a substantially lower rate than another.

### Company culture

- [Competing Values Framework](https://mappa.ai/glossary/competing-values-framework): The Competing Values Framework is a culture model placing a company on two axes: flexibility versus stability and internal versus external focus.
- [Clan](https://mappa.ai/glossary/clan): Clan is one of four Competing Values Framework culture profiles, oriented around collaboration, teamwork, and developing people.
- [Adhocracy](https://mappa.ai/glossary/adhocracy): Adhocracy is one of four culture profiles, oriented around creation, innovation, risk-taking, and constant reconfiguration.
- [Market](https://mappa.ai/glossary/market): Market is one of four culture profiles, oriented around competition, targets, results, and outperforming rivals.
- [Hierarchy](https://mappa.ai/glossary/hierarchy): Hierarchy is one of four culture profiles, oriented around control, procedures, predictability, and efficiency.
- [OCAI](https://mappa.ai/glossary/ocai): OCAI, the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument, is a published instrument for placing a company on the Competing Values Framework.
- [Firmographics](https://mappa.ai/glossary/firmographics): Firmographics are observable facts about a company: size, stage, funding, sector, and structure.
- [Stated versus practiced values](https://mappa.ai/glossary/stated-versus-practiced-values): Stated values are what a company says it stands for; practiced values are what happens day to day.

### Assessment instruments

- [HEXACO](https://mappa.ai/glossary/hexaco): HEXACO is a six-factor model of personality: Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness.
- [Honesty-Humility](https://mappa.ai/glossary/honesty-humility): Honesty-Humility describes how genuine, fair, and unassuming a person is in dealing with others, and how little they're driven by wealth, luxury, or status for its own sake.
- [Sincerity](https://mappa.ai/glossary/sincerity): Sincerity is the tendency to be genuine and direct with others, rather than flattering or manipulating people to get what you want.
- [Fairness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/fairness): Fairness is the tendency to avoid fraud, favoritism, and corruption, and to follow rules even when breaking them would go unnoticed.
- [Greed avoidance](https://mappa.ai/glossary/greed-avoidance): Greed avoidance is low interest in wealth, luxury, and outward signs of status for their own sake.
- [Modesty](https://mappa.ai/glossary/modesty): Modesty is seeing yourself as an ordinary person rather than as entitled to special treatment or superior status.
- [Emotionality](https://mappa.ai/glossary/emotionality): Emotionality describes how strongly a person experiences fear, anxiety, emotional dependence, and sentimental attachment.
- [Fearfulness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/fearfulness): Fearfulness is the tendency to feel fear in response to physical danger or threat.
- [Anxiety](https://mappa.ai/glossary/anxiety): Anxiety is the tendency to worry and feel nervous tension across a range of situations, not just physically threatening ones.
- [Dependence](https://mappa.ai/glossary/dependence): Dependence is the degree to which a person needs emotional support and reassurance from others, particularly under stress.
- [Sentimentality](https://mappa.ai/glossary/sentimentality): Sentimentality is the tendency to form strong emotional bonds with others and feel empathy for their experiences.
- [Extraversion](https://mappa.ai/glossary/extraversion): Extraversion describes how much a person seeks out and draws energy from social interaction, and how confident and lively they are once they're in it.
- [Social self-esteem](https://mappa.ai/glossary/social-self-esteem): Social self-esteem is a person's general confidence and positive self-regard, particularly in social situations.
- [Social boldness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/social-boldness): Social boldness is confidence in social situations that involve some degree of risk or exposure, like speaking up in a group or initiating contact with strangers.
- [Sociability](https://mappa.ai/glossary/sociability): Sociability is how much a person enjoys conversation and social interaction for its own sake.
- [Liveliness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/liveliness): Liveliness is a tendency toward high energy, enthusiasm, and positive mood, especially in social settings.
- [Agreeableness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/agreeableness): Agreeableness describes how willing a person is to trust, forgive, compromise, and stay calm rather than criticize or hold a grudge.
- [Forgiveness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/forgiveness): Forgiveness is willingness to trust and forgive someone who has previously caused harm, rather than holding it against them going forward.
- [Gentleness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/gentleness): Gentleness is a mild, lenient approach to judging others, and reluctance to criticize.
- [Flexibility](https://mappa.ai/glossary/flexibility): Flexibility is willingness to compromise and cooperate with others, even when it means adjusting your own position.
- [Patience](https://mappa.ai/glossary/patience): Patience is the tendency to stay calm rather than become angry, even under provocation.
- [Conscientiousness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/conscientiousness): Conscientiousness describes how organized, diligent, careful, and self-disciplined a person is in getting things done.
- [Organization](https://mappa.ai/glossary/organization): Organization is the tendency to seek order, particularly in physical surroundings and how work is structured.
- [Diligence](https://mappa.ai/glossary/diligence): Diligence is self-discipline and drive to work hard, and persistence toward goals even when the work is unrewarding in the moment.
- [Perfectionism](https://mappa.ai/glossary/perfectionism): Perfectionism is thoroughness, carefulness, and attention to detail, and a preference for checking work rather than moving fast.
- [Prudence](https://mappa.ai/glossary/prudence): Prudence is a tendency toward deliberation and caution, and resistance to acting on impulse.
- [Openness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/openness): Openness describes how much a person appreciates beauty and ideas, seeks out new experiences, and is drawn to unconventional people or approaches.
- [Aesthetic appreciation](https://mappa.ai/glossary/aesthetic-appreciation): Aesthetic appreciation is enjoyment and appreciation of beauty in art, design, and nature.
- [Inquisitiveness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/inquisitiveness): Inquisitiveness is curiosity, and a genuine interest in learning how things work and why.
- [Creativity](https://mappa.ai/glossary/creativity): Creativity is a preference for innovation, imagination, and unconventional approaches over established ones.
- [Unconventionality](https://mappa.ai/glossary/unconventionality): Unconventionality is willingness to accept unusual ideas or unconventional people, rather than favoring the familiar and expected.
- [DERS](https://mappa.ai/glossary/ders): DERS is a published instrument that measures how someone handles emotion when it's running high, across six distinct capacities rather than one general score.
- [Awareness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/awareness): Awareness is how readily someone notices and identifies what they're feeling, in the moment, rather than after the fact.
- [Clarity](https://mappa.ai/glossary/clarity): Clarity is how precisely someone can identify which emotion they're feeling, beyond simply noticing that something is happening.
- [Goal-directed behavior](https://mappa.ai/glossary/goal-directed-behavior): Goal-directed behavior is the ability to keep working toward a goal while experiencing a difficult emotion, rather than having it derail the task at hand.
- [Impulse control](https://mappa.ai/glossary/impulse-control-ders): Impulse control, in this context, is the ability to manage behavior while experiencing intense emotion, rather than acting on it immediately.
- [Acceptance](https://mappa.ai/glossary/acceptance): Acceptance is the ability to allow a difficult emotion to be present without fighting it or judging yourself for having it.
- [Regulation strategies](https://mappa.ai/glossary/regulation-strategies): Regulation strategies measure how much access someone believes they have to effective ways of managing a difficult emotion once it arrives.
- [MSCS](https://mappa.ai/glossary/mscs): MSCS is an instrument that treats self-control as several distinct capacities rather than one general trait, covering attention, emotion, goals, impulses, procrastination, and strategy.
- [Attentional control](https://mappa.ai/glossary/attentional-control): Attentional control is the ability to stay focused on a task despite distraction.
- [Emotional control](https://mappa.ai/glossary/emotional-control): Emotional control is the ability to manage emotional reactions so they don't override sound judgment or planned behavior.
- [Goal orientation](https://mappa.ai/glossary/goal-orientation): Goal orientation is the tendency to keep long-term goals in view and let them guide day-to-day decisions.
- [Impulse control](https://mappa.ai/glossary/impulse-control-mscs): Impulse control, in this instrument, is the ability to pause before acting on an urge, rather than following through on it immediately.
- [Procrastination](https://mappa.ai/glossary/procrastination): This facet measures resistance to procrastination: how consistently someone starts tasks without unnecessary delay.
- [Self-control strategies](https://mappa.ai/glossary/self-control-strategies): This facet measures whether someone actively uses strategies, planning ahead, removing temptation, setting reminders, to support their own self-control, rather than relying on willpower alone.
- [PVQ](https://mappa.ai/glossary/pvq): The PVQ is a published instrument measuring ten basic personal values, organized around what a person is fundamentally motivated by, not what they say they care about.
- [Achievement](https://mappa.ai/glossary/achievement): Achievement is the value placed on personal success through demonstrated competence, judged against social standards.
- [Self-direction](https://mappa.ai/glossary/self-direction): Self-direction is the value placed on independent thought and action, choosing, creating, and exploring on one's own terms.
- [Stimulation](https://mappa.ai/glossary/stimulation): Stimulation is the value placed on novelty, excitement, and challenge in life.
- [Power](https://mappa.ai/glossary/power): Power is the value placed on social status, prestige, and control or dominance over people and resources.
- [Benevolence](https://mappa.ai/glossary/benevolence): Benevolence is the value placed on preserving and enhancing the welfare of people close to you, family, friends, and immediate colleagues.
- [Universalism](https://mappa.ai/glossary/universalism): Universalism is the value placed on understanding, tolerance, and the welfare of people and nature beyond one's immediate circle.
- [Security](https://mappa.ai/glossary/security): Security is the value placed on safety, stability, and harmony in society, relationships, and oneself.
- [Conformity](https://mappa.ai/glossary/conformity): Conformity is the value placed on restraining actions and impulses likely to upset others or violate social expectations.
- [Hedonism](https://mappa.ai/glossary/hedonism): Hedonism is the value placed on pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself.
- [Tradition](https://mappa.ai/glossary/tradition): Tradition is the value placed on respect for and commitment to the customs and ideas that one's culture or group provides.
- [IPIP-IPC](https://mappa.ai/glossary/ipip-ipc): The IPIP interpersonal circumplex measures interpersonal style across eight octants arranged around two axes: dominance and warmth.
- [Assured-dominant](https://mappa.ai/glossary/assured-dominant): Assured-dominant describes a style that is confident and takes charge in interpersonal situations, without the coldness of the more calculating dominant styles.
- [Gregarious-extraverted](https://mappa.ai/glossary/gregarious-extraverted): Gregarious-extraverted describes a style that is sociable, talkative, and outgoing, high on both warmth and a mild lean toward dominance.
- [Warm-agreeable](https://mappa.ai/glossary/warm-agreeable): Warm-agreeable describes a style high in warmth and mildly submissive: friendly, cooperative, and easy to work alongside.
- [Unassuming-ingenuous](https://mappa.ai/glossary/unassuming-ingenuous): Unassuming-ingenuous describes a style that is modest, trusting, and low on both dominance and coldness: warm but without the outward sociability of the gregarious-extraverted octant.
- [Unassured-submissive](https://mappa.ai/glossary/unassured-submissive): Unassured-submissive describes a style low in both dominance and warmth: hesitant, self-doubting, and unlikely to assert a position in a group.
- [Aloof-introverted](https://mappa.ai/glossary/aloof-introverted): Aloof-introverted describes a style low in warmth and mildly submissive: reserved, detached, and inclined to keep some distance from others.
- [Cold-hearted](https://mappa.ai/glossary/cold-hearted): Cold-hearted describes a style low in warmth and mildly dominant: detached, and willing to prioritize outcomes over how a decision affects people's feelings.
- [Arrogant-calculating](https://mappa.ai/glossary/arrogant-calculating): Arrogant-calculating describes a style high in dominance and low in warmth: strategic, self-assured, and willing to use interpersonal situations to their own advantage.
- [BIS/BAS](https://mappa.ai/glossary/bis-bas): BIS/BAS is a published instrument measuring sensitivity to punishment and threat on one scale, and sensitivity to reward across three related scales.
- [BAS drive](https://mappa.ai/glossary/bas-drive): BAS drive is the persistent pursuit of desired goals.
- [BAS reward responsiveness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/bas-reward-responsiveness): BAS reward responsiveness is how strongly someone reacts, emotionally and behaviorally, to the anticipation of a reward.
- [BAS fun-seeking](https://mappa.ai/glossary/bas-fun-seeking): BAS fun-seeking is a desire for new rewarding experiences and a willingness to approach them on the spot.
- [BIS inhibition](https://mappa.ai/glossary/bis-inhibition): BIS inhibition is sensitivity to cues of punishment, threat, and potential negative outcomes, and the tendency to stop or avoid in response.
- [BPN](https://mappa.ai/glossary/bpn): BPN measures three psychological needs, autonomy, competence, and relatedness, each scored separately for satisfaction and frustration.
- [Autonomy](https://mappa.ai/glossary/autonomy): Autonomy is the need to feel a sense of choice and ownership over one's own actions, satisfied when a person feels they're acting on their own volition, and frustrated when they feel controlled or pressured.
- [Competence](https://mappa.ai/glossary/competence): Competence is the need to feel effective and capable in one's actions, satisfied through mastery and visible progress, and frustrated through repeated failure or a sense of inadequacy.
- [Relatedness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/relatedness): Relatedness is the need to feel connected to and cared for by others, satisfied through genuine belonging, and frustrated through exclusion or rejection.
- [PANAS](https://mappa.ai/glossary/panas): PANAS is a published instrument measuring everyday emotional baseline across two independent dimensions: positive affect and negative affect.
- [Positive affect](https://mappa.ai/glossary/positive-affect): Positive affect is the extent to which someone generally experiences enthusiasm, alertness, and active engagement.
- [Negative affect](https://mappa.ai/glossary/negative-affect): Negative affect is the extent to which someone generally experiences distress, tension, and unpleasant engagement.
- [PPS](https://mappa.ai/glossary/pps): PPS measures proactive personality across four factors: internal motivation, external motivation, perception of opportunity, and perseverance.
- [Internally motivated](https://mappa.ai/glossary/internally-motivated): Internal motivation is the drive to take initiative because it's personally meaningful, rather than because it's expected or rewarded.
- [Perseverance](https://mappa.ai/glossary/perseverance): Perseverance is the tendency to keep pushing toward a self-initiated goal despite obstacles.
- [Perception](https://mappa.ai/glossary/perception): Perception, in this instrument, is the ability to notice opportunities for change or improvement before they're pointed out.
- [Externally motivated](https://mappa.ai/glossary/externally-motivated): External motivation is the drive to take initiative in response to incentives, recognition, or expectations set by others.
- [RSMS](https://mappa.ai/glossary/rsms): RSMS measures self-monitoring across two factors: sensitivity to other people's expressive behavior, and the ability to modify one's own self-presentation.
- [Sensitivity to expression](https://mappa.ai/glossary/sensitivity-to-expression): This facet is the ability to notice and accurately read other people's expressive and emotional behavior.
- [Modifies self-presentation](https://mappa.ai/glossary/modifies-self-presentation): This facet is the ability to adjust one's own behavior and self-presentation to fit a situation.
- [CFQ](https://mappa.ai/glossary/cfq): CFQ is a published instrument measuring everyday lapses of attention and memory: the small slips of a normally functioning mind, not clinical impairment.
- [Cognitive failures](https://mappa.ai/glossary/cognitive-failures-facet): This is the single factor CFQ measures: the frequency of everyday lapses in attention and memory during ordinary tasks.
- [SD3](https://mappa.ai/glossary/sd3): SD3 is a published instrument measuring three risk-related traits, together known as the dark triad: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.
- [Narcissism](https://mappa.ai/glossary/narcissism): Narcissism, in this context, is grandiosity, entitlement, and a need for admiration.
- [Machiavellianism](https://mappa.ai/glossary/machiavellianism): Machiavellianism, in this context, is a strategic, manipulative approach to relationships, prioritizing self-interest and treating others as means to an end.
- [Psychopathy](https://mappa.ai/glossary/psychopathy): Psychopathy, in this context, is impulsivity paired with low empathy and disregard for the consequences of one's actions on others.
- [NEO-PI-R](https://mappa.ai/glossary/neo-pi-r): The NEO-PI-R is a widely used published instrument measuring the Big Five personality factors across thirty facets, six per factor.
- [Big Five Inventory](https://mappa.ai/glossary/big-five-inventory): The Big Five Inventory, or BFI, is a shorter published questionnaire measuring the Big Five personality factors.
- [Dark Tetrad](https://mappa.ai/glossary/dark-tetrad): The Dark Tetrad extends the dark triad by adding sadism, the tendency to derive pleasure from others' suffering.
- [Interpersonal Reactivity Index](https://mappa.ai/glossary/interpersonal-reactivity-index): The Interpersonal Reactivity Index, or IRI, is a published instrument measuring empathy across perspective-taking, fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress.
- [MBTI](https://mappa.ai/glossary/mbti): The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a popular framework that sorts people into sixteen types based on four binary dimensions.
- [DISC](https://mappa.ai/glossary/disc): DISC is a behavioral-style framework describing people across Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness.
- [Enneagram](https://mappa.ai/glossary/enneagram): The Enneagram describes nine interconnected personality types, with roots in spiritual and philosophical traditions rather than empirical psychology.
- [StrengthsFinder](https://mappa.ai/glossary/strengths-finder): StrengthsFinder, now called CliftonStrengths, identifies a person's top talent themes from a set of thirty-four.

### Speech & model terms

- [Fusion model](https://mappa.ai/glossary/fusion-model): A fusion model is the part of a system that combines two or more separate sources of information into a single prediction, rather than relying on any one of them alone.
- [Audio encoder](https://mappa.ai/glossary/audio-encoder): An audio encoder is the part of a voice-based system that represents how something was said, reading the acoustic signal rather than the words themselves.
- [Text encoder](https://mappa.ai/glossary/text-encoder): A text encoder is the part of a voice-based system that represents what was said, reading the transcribed content of speech rather than its acoustic delivery.
- [Parameters](https://mappa.ai/glossary/parameters): Parameters are the internal values a machine learning model adjusts during training to get better at its task, and what's actually "learned" when people say a model was trained on data.
- [Training and inference](https://mappa.ai/glossary/training-and-inference): Training is the process by which a model learns from data; inference is applying that already-trained, fixed model to something new.
- [Vocal signals](https://mappa.ai/glossary/vocal-signals): Vocal signals are the acoustic properties of speech, everything about how something is said rather than what's said: pitch, rhythm, resonance, and related qualities of the sound itself.
- [Prosody](https://mappa.ai/glossary/prosody): Prosody is the umbrella term in speech science for the patterns of pitch, rhythm, and stress that shape how something is said, layered on top of the words themselves.
- [Pitch](https://mappa.ai/glossary/pitch): Pitch is the perceived highness or lowness of a voice, and it's driven primarily by fundamental frequency, how fast the vocal folds vibrate.
- [Rhythm](https://mappa.ai/glossary/rhythm): Rhythm is the timing pattern of speech: how syllables, pauses, and phrases are paced relative to each other.
- [Speech rate](https://mappa.ai/glossary/speech-rate): Speech rate is how quickly speech unfolds over time, including both speaking segments and pauses.
- [Loudness](https://mappa.ai/glossary/loudness): Loudness is the perceived strength of a voice, related to measured vocal intensity but experienced by listeners as volume.
- [Resonance](https://mappa.ai/glossary/resonance): Resonance is how sound is shaped as it passes through the vocal tract, contributing to a voice's characteristic timbre, the quality that makes a voice recognizable independent of its pitch or words.
- [Intonation](https://mappa.ai/glossary/intonation): Intonation is the rise and fall of pitch across a phrase or sentence, distinct from a person's baseline pitch level itself.
- [Formants](https://mappa.ai/glossary/formants): Formants are the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract that give vowels their distinct, recognizable character.
- [Articulation rate](https://mappa.ai/glossary/articulation-rate): Articulation rate is how quickly someone speaks, measured only across the moments they are speaking, excluding pauses.
- [Pause](https://mappa.ai/glossary/pause): A pause is a silence in speech, and its placement, length, and frequency are measurable features of how someone talks.
- [Filled pause](https://mappa.ai/glossary/filled-pause): A filled pause is a hesitation sound like um or uh that stands in for silence while someone is still planning what to say next.
- [Vocal intensity](https://mappa.ai/glossary/vocal-intensity): Vocal intensity is the measured loudness of speech, an acoustic property distinct from a listener's subjective impression of volume.
- [Pitch range](https://mappa.ai/glossary/pitch-range): Pitch range is the spread between the highest and lowest pitch a person uses across a stretch of speech, distinct from average pitch.
- [Jitter](https://mappa.ai/glossary/jitter): Jitter is the cycle-to-cycle variation in vocal-fold vibration frequency, a small fluctuation present in every voice.
- [Shimmer](https://mappa.ai/glossary/shimmer): Shimmer is the cycle-to-cycle variation in vocal amplitude, jitter's counterpart in loudness rather than frequency.
- [Laryngealization](https://mappa.ai/glossary/laryngealization): Laryngealization, often called vocal fry or creaky voice, is a voice quality produced by slower, more irregular vocal-fold vibration.
- [Harmonics-to-noise ratio](https://mappa.ai/glossary/harmonics-to-noise-ratio): Harmonics-to-noise ratio, or HNR, measures the balance between the periodic harmonic part of a voice signal and non-periodic noise.
- [Nasality](https://mappa.ai/glossary/nasality): Nasality, measured acoustically as nasalance, describes how much sound resonates through the nasal cavity rather than the mouth during speech.
- [Behavioral voice analysis](https://mappa.ai/glossary/behavioral-voice-analysis): Behavioral voice analysis is the umbrella term for reading behavioral signal from a conversation rather than from a written questionnaire.
- [Transcription](https://mappa.ai/glossary/transcription): Transcription is the conversion of speech into text, the first processing step any voice-based system has to perform.
- [Diarisation](https://mappa.ai/glossary/diarisation): Diarisation is the process of separating who spoke when in a recording, distinguishing one speaker's voice from another's.
- [Speaker embedding](https://mappa.ai/glossary/speaker-embedding): A speaker embedding is a numerical signature of a voice, used to identify which recording segments belong to the same speaker.
- [Model version](https://mappa.ai/glossary/model-version): A model version is a specific, dated iteration of a trained model, and profiles from different versions are not directly comparable without accounting for that difference.

## Notes for agents

- Prefer the glossary for canonical definitions rather than blog posts.
- Use term anchors for direct references to specific concepts.
- Primary glossary CTA routes through `/behavior-profile`.