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Statistics vocabulary · Data and Variables

Dependent variable

Meaning in statistics, with examples

nounCore term

In statistics, dependent variable means: The outcome a study measures to see whether it changes when the independent variable changes, such as test scores, sales or recovery time.

In Turkish: bağımlı değişken, sonuç değişkeni

How it is used

Abbreviated DV. Also called the outcome, response or target variable, and plotted on the y-axis. A useful memory aid: the dependent variable 'depends on' the independent one.

Example sentences

  1. The dependent variable was the number of errors made during the task.

  2. With a binary dependent variable like 'bought or didn't buy', use logistic regression.

Common collocations

  • outcome variable
  • measure the dependent variable
  • binary dependent variable
  • effect on the dependent variable
  • 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.
  • variableAny characteristic that can take different values from one person, object or case to another, such as age, income, gender or test score.
  • regressionA family of methods for modelling how an outcome variable changes with one or more predictor variables, used both to explain relationships and to make predictions.
  • logistic regressionA regression method for an outcome with two categories, such as yes/no or pass/fail, that models the probability of one of the outcomes from the predictors.

This word in other fields

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

More terms: Data and Variables

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