Confounding
Definition
Confounding occurs when there is an additional variable that affects both the independent variable and dependent variable, making it difficult to determine their individual effects accurately.
Analogy
Imagine you're trying to figure out if eating breakfast affects students' test scores. However, there's another factor at play - the amount of sleep they got. If you don't account for this confounding variable, it might falsely appear that eating breakfast directly affects test scores.
Related terms
Causation: Causation refers to a cause-and-effect relationship between variables, where changes in one variable directly influence changes in another.
Randomization: Randomization is a technique used to assign individuals to different groups or treatments randomly, reducing the likelihood of confounding variables.
Control Group: A control group is a group in an experiment that does not receive the treatment being tested and serves as a baseline for comparison.
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