Statistical Sciences 2244A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Block Design, Dependent And Independent Variables
14 Oct 2016
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Subjects: term used to describe individuals in an experiment if they are people. Experimental units: used to describe individuals/units in an experiment when they are not people. Factors: the explanatory variables/independent variables in an experiment. Treatment: any experimental condition applied to subjects/units. If an experiment has +1 factors, a treatment is a combination of specific values for each factor. Placebo effect: a controlled treatment that is fake but otherwise indistinguishable from the other treatment in the experimental group. By assigning subjects treatments, we can avoid confounding. Control the environment of the subjects to hold constant factors that are not directly of interest to us. Preferred method for examining the effect of one variable on another: by imposing specific treatment of interest and controlling the other influences we can pin down cause and effect. Statistical designs are essential for effective experiments, just as they are for sample surveys and observational studies. Many labs use a design similar to the one above.
