What's the difference between retroactive and retrospective?

Retroactive


Definition:

  • (a.) Fitted or designed to retroact; operating by returned action; affecting what is past; retrospective.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The immunity was enacted by an overwhelming bipartisan vote, with the support of leading Democrats including Barack Obama, who had promised - when seeking his party's nomination - to filibuster any bill that contained retroactive telecom immunity.
  • (2) Sixty five valid MMPI profiles, based on tests administered during the 1986 calendar year were retroactively scored for a scale designed by Sladen and Mozdzierz (1985) which was reportedly capable of identifying individuals likely to drop out of chemical dependency treatment.
  • (3) So perhaps, at some distant point in the future, the Nobel committee will find a crass way to play politics at the same time as giving a retroactive nod to Malala – unless she has become president of Pakistan: in which case she'll finally be in the sort of day job that tends to catch their eye.
  • (4) Just two weeks ago, Manafort registered retroactively with the justice department as a foreign agent for lobbying work he did from 2012 to 2014 for the Ukrainian political party.
  • (5) "There will not be any retroactive direct recapitalisation," Merkel told a news conference. "
  • (6) And now, the US supreme court just consecrated one of the most corrupt acts of the US government over the past decade: its vesting of retroactive legal immunity in the nation's telecom giants after they had been caught red-handed violating multiple US eavesdropping laws.
  • (7) Advantages and possibilities brought about by the method are presented: sensibility, reproducibility and dynamic study of the pattern of neurohormone release, without a possible retroactive action of released substances on the perifused tissue.
  • (8) Exposure to a session of tones causes retroactive interference through a cognitive effect.
  • (9) In view of this finding, that as well as a constant regulation with negative retroaction of the corticotrophic-releasing factor--adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH)--cortisol system, there exists an externally controlled servomechanism from nervous system activity related to the environment.
  • (10) The AX labeling reponses showed large contrast effects (both proactive and retroactive) that were greatly reduced when auditory memory was interfered with.
  • (11) The retroactive legislation, published on Thursday evening and expected to be rushed through parliament on Tuesday, will effectively strike down a decision by three senior judges and deny benefit claimants an average payout of between £530 and £570 each.
  • (12) The analyst obtains thus the means to understand (also in a retroactive way) the value and the limits of his interpretations.
  • (13) The possibilities are discussed of stimulating the regulation of the circuit that governs the tumoral defense, keeping the negative retroaction below the limits at which it starts developing exponentially, thereby enhancing anticancer defenses.
  • (14) Retroactive studies of viral diseases using routinely processed blocks of tissue (formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded) are therefore conceivable.
  • (15) Merkel made clear that any direct bank recapitalization, if and when it is allowed, would not be retroactive and could only be applied for future contingencies.
  • (16) Thirty patients with CPS of lateralized temporal lobe onset [15 left temporal (LT) and 15 right temporal (RT)] were compared with 15 matched controls (NC) on several measures derived from the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), i.e., verbal learning ability, immediate free recall, presence of retroactive interference effects, semantic organization, retrieval efficiency, and recognition memory.
  • (17) The storage loss occurs because of the retroactive influence of other traces, and the storage retention function is precisely characterized by an underlying Weibull distribution.
  • (18) The author opposes the two principal conceptions of interpretation: the deterministic conception predominant in Freud, in which the present is determined by the subject's actual past; and the creative hermeneutic conception, which traces its origins back not only to Heidegger and Ricoeur but also to Jung; in the latter view, interpretation cannot but be retroactive, assigning significance to a meaningless past.
  • (19) Nothing like this had ever been seen before: a massive, open, retroactive evaluation of scientific literature, conducted entirely by computer.
  • (20) That could include inmates who have not retroactively benefited from recent sentencing reforms, meaning they would face lighter punishments if convicted today.

Retrospective


Definition:

  • (a.) Looking backward; contemplating things past; -- opposed to prospective; as, a retrospective view.
  • (a.) Having reference to what is past; affecting things past; retroactive; as, a retrospective law.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Thirteen patients with bipolar affective illness who had received lithium therapy for 1-5 years were tested retrospectively for evidence of cortical dysfunction.
  • (2) A total of 104 evaluable patients 20-90 years old treated by direct vision internal urethrotomy a.m. Sachse for urethral strictures reported retrospectively via a questionnaire their sexual potency before and after internal urethrotomy.
  • (3) Because of the small number of patients reported in the world literature and lack of controlled studies, the treatment of small cell carcinoma of the larynx remains controversial; this retrospective analysis suggests that combination chemotherapy plus radiation offers the best chance for cure.
  • (4) The adaptive filter processor was tested for retrospective identification of artifacts in 20 male volunteers who performed the following specific movements between epochs of quiet, supine breathing: raising arms and legs (slowly, quickly, once, and several times), sitting up, breathing deeply and rapidly, and rolling from a supine to a lateral decubitus position.
  • (5) The present retrospective study reports the results of a survey conducted on 130 patients given elective abdominal and urinary surgery together with the cultivation of routine intraperitoneal drainage material.
  • (6) We report a retrospective study of 107 cases of carcinoma of the sigmoid colon and upper rectum treated for primary cure at the University of California at Los Angeles Hospital between 1955 and 1970.
  • (7) For retrospective action to be taken, and an FA charge to follow, the decision of the panel must be unanimous.” The match between the sides ended in acrimony and two City red cards.
  • (8) A retrospective review was undertaken of 127 lower extremity fasciotomies performed for compartment syndrome after acute ischemia and revascularization in 73 patients with vascular trauma and 49 patients with arterial occlusive disease.
  • (9) A retrospective study examined the reactions to the termination of pregnancy for fetal malformation and the follow up services that were available.
  • (10) A retrospective study was done in 86 patients on dialysis in order to evaluate the doses of aluminum hydroxide (OH3 Al) received to achieve a better serum phosphate control.
  • (11) Ultrasonography of 4 cases of intussusception in children with proven lead points were reviewed retrospectively.
  • (12) This information has been collected in Finland retrospectively from waterworks, and will be correlated with the Finnish Cancer Registry data.
  • (13) A retrospective review of 388 patients who presented to the Mayo Clinic for treatment of endometrial carcinoma between 1979 and 1983 was performed and the surgical and pathologic observations were documented.
  • (14) In a retrospective study of 610 patients the role of routine gastroscopy prior to cholecystectomy was investigated.
  • (15) We retrospectively studied the incidence and course of epoxy resin contact dermatitis in 2265 patients in whom contact dermatitis was confirmed by patch testing.
  • (16) This was a retrospective study of 285 patients with coronary heart disease and 393 healthy subjects.
  • (17) Therefore, two-dimensional echocardiographic findings in 22 patients with perivalvular abscess found at surgery or necropsy were compared with those in 24 patients without abscess in a retrospective but blinded study.
  • (18) Patients with femoral neck fractures treated at a department of orthopedic surgery in a university hospital and one retrospective control sample from a department of general surgery in a county hospital.
  • (19) A retrospective study of autopsy-verified fatal pulmonary embolism at a department of infectious diseases was carried out, covering a four-year period (1980-83).
  • (20) A retrospective study was conducted into 136 patients who had received surgical treatment for perforated gastroduodenal ulcers, with the view to establishing postoperative lethality and morbidity (comparing simple suturing with definitive ulcer surgery).