Dependent and Independent Variables
Often times students get confused on
Independent and Dependent variables.
Experimental groups are just that, groups that participants are divided into. Independent variables are things that can be manipulated by the experimenter (I determine the Independent variable). The dependent variables are the outcomes (Dependent variables are the Data collected).
Let's say I wanted to study the affects of sleep on students' grades. I might have 3 experimental groups: one group who gets 6 hours of sleep, one group that gets 8 hours, and one group that gets 10 hours of sleep.
My independent variables would be things I can control: which group students are in and how much sleep students get, perhaps the quality of sleep they get, how they are woken up, their level of caffeine intake prior to sleep, etc.
My dependent variables (things that are affected by the independent variables), or the data I collect might be students grades, attitudes, concentration levels, biofeedback, etc.
Another topic I might want to research is if violent video games make people more violent. I would have 3 experimental groups: one group which doesn't play any games, one group that is assigned Candy Crush and another group that is assigned a violent video game like Grand Theft Auto (I'm not really into video games so I'm sure there are worse out there).
My independent variables would be things I can control such as frequency of play, duration or play, and level of difficulty.
My dependent variables are things that I would measure such as level of frustration, rates of aggression, biofeedback like pupil dialation and breathing rate, and how they handled a difficult situation after being exposed to the independent variables.
Hope this helps clarify this issue a bit.
Experimental groups are just that, groups that participants are divided into. Independent variables are things that can be manipulated by the experimenter (I determine the Independent variable). The dependent variables are the outcomes (Dependent variables are the Data collected).
Let's say I wanted to study the affects of sleep on students' grades. I might have 3 experimental groups: one group who gets 6 hours of sleep, one group that gets 8 hours, and one group that gets 10 hours of sleep.
My independent variables would be things I can control: which group students are in and how much sleep students get, perhaps the quality of sleep they get, how they are woken up, their level of caffeine intake prior to sleep, etc.
My dependent variables (things that are affected by the independent variables), or the data I collect might be students grades, attitudes, concentration levels, biofeedback, etc.
Another topic I might want to research is if violent video games make people more violent. I would have 3 experimental groups: one group which doesn't play any games, one group that is assigned Candy Crush and another group that is assigned a violent video game like Grand Theft Auto (I'm not really into video games so I'm sure there are worse out there).
My independent variables would be things I can control such as frequency of play, duration or play, and level of difficulty.
My dependent variables are things that I would measure such as level of frustration, rates of aggression, biofeedback like pupil dialation and breathing rate, and how they handled a difficult situation after being exposed to the independent variables.
Hope this helps clarify this issue a bit.
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