Variables

Question 1

What is the independent variable?

Answer 1

The variable that is manipulated by the experimenter or altered
by the situation/characteristics of participants, in order to
observe the effects on the dependent variable.

Question 2

What is the dependant variable?

Answer 2

The variable that is measured by the experimenter

Question 3

What is an extraneous variable?

Answer 3

Any variable other than the independent variable that might
affect the dependent variable. E.g. Level of alertness.
Extraneous variables include participant variables, situational
variables, demand characteristics and investigator effects. These
should be controlled so they do not become confounding.

Question 4

What is a confounding variable?

Answer 4

affect the dependent variable. E.g. Students were given 30
minutes to revise in the first period of college (so were more alert)
and students given 5 minutes to revise were tested in the final
period of college (so were less alert). It is unclear if each
participant’s score on the test (DV) was due to the time given to
revise (IV) or their level of alertness (EV) which varied between
the conditions (CV