Fidelity
Fidelity is the quality of faithfulness or loyalty. Its original meaning regarded duty in a broader sense than the related concept of fealty. Both derive from the Latin word fidēlis, meaning "faithful or loyal". In the City of London financial markets it has traditionally been used in the sense encompassed in the motto "my word is my bond".
For other uses, see Fidelity (disambiguation).Scientific modelling and simulation[edit]
In the fields of scientific modelling and simulation, fidelity refers to the degree to which a model or simulation reproduces the state and behaviour of a real world object, feature or condition. Fidelity is therefore a measure of the realism of a model or simulation.[3] Simulation fidelity has also been described in the past as "degree of similarity".[4] In quantum mechanics and optics,[5] the fidelity of a field is calculated as an overlap integral of the field of interest with a reference or target field.
Program evaluation[edit]
In the field of program evaluation, the term fidelity denotes how closely a set of procedures were implemented as they were supposed to have been. For example, it is difficult to draw conclusions from a study about formative assessment in school classrooms if the teachers are not able or willing to follow the procedures they received in training.[6]