Experimentation
test or procedure carried out under controlled conditions to determine the validity of a hypothesis or make a discovery
Correlation
research that tests for a statistical relationship between two or more variables
Research
Involves a relationship among variables, but instead focuses on manipulating one of the variables to see if one has an effect on the other
Quasi-experiments
Usually related to demographic variables cannot be varied explicitly, and must be either selected during pre-sampling or from the sample you happen to get
Correlational
Confounding
Factor that is correlated or related to an IV that prevents you from concluding that your IV caused an effect that was observed, or perhaps prevents a true effect of the IV from showing up
Hypothesis
Testable prediction or possible explanation in an experiment, based on prior knowledge and/or observation
Null Hypothesis
Alternative Hypothesis
Implies that there was no observed effect on
the dependent variable in the experiment
Implies that there was an observable
effect in the experiment
Falsibility
Ability for a hypothesis or theory to be proven false
True Experiment
One in which a researcher manipulates one or more independent variables in order to measure the effect on a dependent variable
Randomly Assigned
Conditions selected, not participants
Placebo
Simulated treatment that lacks any active ingredient or element, and a placebo effect is a positive effect of such a treatment
A-B Testing
term used within advertising and usability design to describe simple experiments that compare a simple manipulation
Causation
Correlation
Logical relationship between events
Statistical measure of the relationship between two variables
Correlation does not mean causation!