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In a typical research design, the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable is measured. For this to happen properly, it is crucial to control other extraneous or standardized variable.
In experiments, a researcher or a scientist aims to understand the effect that an independent variable has on a dependent variable. Control variables help ensure that the experiment results are fair, unskewed, and not caused by your experimental manipulation. In such research studies, control variables help infer relationships between the main variables of interest.
By now, you must have understood how important it is to control variables that can impact the results of a research or experiment, in addition to the independent and dependent variables.
You would never be sure of whether your results are an effect of your independent variable or not. Controlling variables is important because even the slightest of variations in the research study could influence the results..
Another advantage of control variables is that they make it easier and more convenient to reproduce a research study and establish the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. For instance, say you are trying to determine whether a particular soil quality has an effect on plant growth.
The independent variable is the soil quality, while the dependent variable is the rate of growth of the plant. Do people with a fear of water perceive water images faster than other people? There are several ways to control extraneous variables in experimental designs, quasi-experimental designs, observational designs, and research studies. This is most relevant for experimental studies with multiple groups. It helps control participant variables that are likely to differ between groups and skew your results.
Have a language expert improve your writing. Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes. Do the check. Generate your APA citations for free! APA Citation Generator. Home Knowledge Base Methodology Control variables explained. Control variables explained Published on March 1, by Pritha Bhandari. Examples of control variables Research question Control variables Does soil quality affect plant growth? Temperature Amount of light Amount of water Does caffeine improve memory recall?
Participant age Noise in the environment Type of memory test Do people with a fear of spiders perceive spider images faster than other people? Computer screen brightness Room lighting Visual stimuli sizes Table of contents Why do control variables matter? What is a control variable? Why are control variables important? What is internal validity? Is this article helpful? Supplement Control variables are important in scientific experiments to test the validity of the results.
Variant: controlled variable See also: independent variable, dependent variable. Homeostasis is the relatively stable conditions of the internal environment that result from compensatory regulatory responses performed by homeostatic control systems.
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