What is a confounding variable?

What is a confounding variable?

• A. An extraneous variable unrelated to both IV and DV.
• B. A variable that is manipulated to observe an effect.
• C. An extraneous variable related to both the independent variable and the dependent variable, potentially creating a false attribution.
• D. A variable that measures the outcome only.

Answer: (C)

A confounding variable is an extraneous factor that is related to both the thing you change (the independent variable) and the thing you measure (the dependent variable), and it can create a false impression about what caused the observed effect. This is why the correct description best captures the idea: the variable is tied to both IV and DV and has the potential to mislead interpretations of causality. For example, if you’re looking at whether a tutoring program improves test scores, students’ prior motivation could be a confounder because it relates to whether they participate in tutoring and also to their performance on tests. If motivation isn’t controlled, you might incorrectly attribute score improvements to tutoring alone. Unrelated extraneous variables wouldn’t confound the results because they don’t influence either the IV or DV in a way that could fake an effect. A variable manipulated to observe an effect is the independent variable itself, not a confound. A variable that measures the outcome only is a dependent variable or outcome measure, not a confound.

A confounding variable is an extraneous factor that is related to both the thing you change (the independent variable) and the thing you measure (the dependent variable), and it can create a false impression about what caused the observed effect. This is why the correct description best captures the idea: the variable is tied to both IV and DV and has the potential to mislead interpretations of causality.

For example, if you’re looking at whether a tutoring program improves test scores, students’ prior motivation could be a confounder because it relates to whether they participate in tutoring and also to their performance on tests. If motivation isn’t controlled, you might incorrectly attribute score improvements to tutoring alone.

Unrelated extraneous variables wouldn’t confound the results because they don’t influence either the IV or DV in a way that could fake an effect. A variable manipulated to observe an effect is the independent variable itself, not a confound. A variable that measures the outcome only is a dependent variable or outcome measure, not a confound.