An explanatory variable is an independent variable in an experiment or study that is manipulated to observe its effect on a dependent variable. It helps in identifying causal relationships by influencing changes in the response variable.
Response Variable: A dependent variable that measures the outcome of a study influenced by the explanatory variable.
Confounding Variable: An extraneous factor that may affect the results of a study by being related to both the explanatory and response variables.
Random Assignment: A method used in experimental design to randomly allocate subjects to different groups to ensure each group is comparable.