For example, in our case the test mark that a student achieves is dependent on revision time and intelligence. The dependent variable is simply that, a variable that is dependent on an independent variable(s). Independent Variables: Revision time (measured in hours) Intelligence (measured using IQ score) The dependent and independent variables for the study are:ĭependent Variable: Test Mark (measured from 0 to 100) As such, the tutor decides to investigate the effect of revision time and intelligence on the test performance of the 100 students. Whilst the tutor does not know the answer to this, she thinks that it might be because of two reasons: (1) some students spend more time revising for their test and (2) some students are naturally more intelligent than others. The tutor wants to know why some students perform better than others. Imagine that a tutor asks 100 students to complete a maths test. Dependent and Independent VariablesĪn independent variable, sometimes called an experimental or predictor variable, is a variable that is being manipulated in an experiment in order to observe the effect on a dependent variable, sometimes called an outcome variable. Finally, we explain how variables can be characterised as either categorical or continuous. Second, we discuss the difference between experimental and non-experimental research. First, we illustrate the role of dependent and independent variables. To understand the characteristics of variables and how we use them in research, this guide is divided into three main sections. A variable is not only something that we measure, but also something that we can manipulate and something we can control for. All experiments examine some kind of variable(s).
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