Dr. Smith is developing a new drug to treat headaches. To test this drug, she develops a study in which one group gets the new drug, and the other gets a placebo, or a fake pill. Dr. Smith measures whether headaches improve by giving each participant a survey each day. The amount of improvement, as measured by the survey, is the ______ variable.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The dependent variable is the one being measured in the study, in this case the improvement of headaches as measured by the survey. The independent variable is the drug (or placebo) being given, and the explanatory variable refers to a variable that may help explain or predict the dependent variable, which is not applicable in this scenario. Non-response variable refers to data that was not collected due to participants not responding or dropping out, which is also not applicable in this scenario.

Dr Smith Is Developing a New Drug to Treat Headaches