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Psychology vocabulary · Research Methods and Statistics

Confounding variable

Meaning in psychology, with examples

nounCommon term

In psychology, confounding variable means: An extra variable linked to both the supposed cause and the outcome, so that it may explain an apparent effect instead of the variable being studied.

In Turkish: karıştırıcı değişken, karışık değişken

How it is used

Often shortened to confound. Researchers control for, rule out or adjust for confounding variables through random assignment, matching or statistical control. Reviewers commonly ask whether a confounding variable was considered.

Example sentences

  1. Age may be a confounding variable, because the older participants also slept less.

  2. We controlled for income as a possible confounding variable.

Common collocations

  • control for a confounding variable
  • rule out confounding variables
  • potential confounding variable
  • random assignmentPlacing participants into the groups of a study by chance, so that each person has an equal chance of being in any group and the groups are similar at the start.
  • correlationA statistical relationship in which two variables change together, in the same direction (positive) or in opposite directions (negative), without showing which causes which.
  • validityThe extent to which a test really measures what it claims to measure, or to which a study's conclusions are justified by the way it was designed.
  • independent variableThe factor that a researcher deliberately changes or compares in a study to see whether it causes changes in another variable.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Research Methods and Statistics

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