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Statistics vocabulary · Survey and Study Design

Control group

Meaning in statistics, with examples

nounCore term

In statistics, control group means: The group in an experiment that does not receive the treatment being tested, or receives a placebo or the usual treatment, so that it can be compared with the treatment group.

In Turkish: kontrol grubu

How it is used

The comparison group in experiments and trials; its counterpart is the treatment, intervention or experimental group. Without a control group it is hard to tell whether a change comes from the treatment or from time, practice or expectations.

Example sentences

  1. Students in the control group followed the standard curriculum.

  2. Without a control group, we can't say whether the training itself improved sales.

Common collocations

  • treatment and control groups
  • assign to the control group
  • compared with the control group
  • waiting-list control group
  • random assignmentPlacing participants into the groups of an experiment by chance, for example with computer-generated random numbers, so that the groups are similar at the start.
  • independent variableThe variable that a researcher changes, controls or uses to explain changes in another variable; in an experiment it is the factor being manipulated.
  • causationA relationship in which a change in one variable directly produces a change in another, as opposed to the two simply moving together.
  • pilot studyA small trial run of a study, carried out before the main study, to test the questionnaire, the procedures and the timing and to find problems early.

This word in other fields

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

More terms: Survey and Study Design

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