Chapter 10: Simple Experiments Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for reviewing key terms and concepts related to simple experiments.

Independent Variable (IV)

The variable that a researcher manipulates in an experiment.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The variable that a researcher measures to see if it is affected by the independent variable.

Control Variables

Variables kept constant in an experiment to ensure that only the independent variable is responsible for changes in the dependent variable.

Treatment Group

The group in an experiment that receives the experimental condition or treatment.

Control Group

The group in an experiment that receives no treatment or a standard treatment, used for comparison with the treatment group.

Placebo Group

A group that receives a fake or inactive treatment to control for the placebo effect.

Design Confound

A threat to internal validity where another variable unintentionally varies along with the independent variable.

Selection Effects

A threat to internal validity where groups in an experiment differ systematically at the start.

Unsystematic Variability

Random or chance differences that can obscure the systematic effects of the independent variable; also known as error variance.

Independent-Groups Design

An experimental design where different groups of participants are placed into different levels of the independent variable.

Within-Groups Design

An experimental design where each participant is presented with all levels of the independent variable.

Posttest-Only Design

An experimental design where the dependent variable is measured only after the manipulation of the independent variable.

Pretest/Posttest Design

An experimental design where the dependent variable is measured both before and after manipulation of the independent variable.

Internal Validity

The extent to which a study establishes a trustworthy cause-and-effect relationship between a treatment and an outcome.

Temporal Precedence

One of three criteria for establishing a causal claim, stating that the proposed causal variable comes first in time, before the proposed outcome variable.

Covariance

One of three criteria for establishing a causal claim, which states that the proposed causal variable and the proposed outcome variable are correlated.