Experimental Design quiz Flashcards

A false positive is an outcome that falsely indicates the presence of a result, such as a pregnancy test indicating pregnancy when the person is not pregnant.

A false negative is an outcome that falsely indicates the absence of a result, such as a pregnancy test indicating not pregnant when the person is actually pregnant.

Control groups are important because they help prevent false positives and false negatives by providing a baseline for comparison.

The purpose of a negative control is to prevent false positives by using a group where no response is expected, such as a placebo.

The purpose of a positive control is to prevent false negatives by using a group where a response is expected, such as a proven effective drug.

A negative control helps prevent false positives by providing a baseline where no response is expected, ensuring that any observed effect is due to the experimental treatment.

A positive control helps prevent false negatives by providing a baseline where a response is expected, ensuring that the experimental setup can detect an effect if it exists.

The independent variable is the factor that scientists have control over and manipulate to observe its effect on the dependent variable.

The dependent variable is what scientists measure in the experiment, such as drug effectiveness in healing a toe injury.

An example of a negative control would be using a sugar pill (placebo) that is not expected to have any effect on the condition being treated.

An example of a positive control would be using a brand name pill that has been proven to work successfully in the past.

If a negative control shows 100% drug effectiveness, it indicates a false positive, meaning the placebo had an unexpected effect.

If a positive control shows 0% drug effectiveness, it indicates a false negative, meaning the proven drug did not show the expected effect.

Including both positive and negative controls is important to ensure the reliability of the experimental results by preventing false positives and false negatives.