Question

What's the difference between an experimental group of subjects and a control group?

This isn't homework, just a general question. Please give me an example because I don't quite understand this.

Answer 1

Okay say you wanted to test whether being regularly hungry slowed down the speed someone's hair grew at.

Well how would you do that?

Of course you would take a load of hungry people and measure the speed of their hair growth. - That's the experiment group

But wait, that's no good, you need to know how fast hair normally grows.

So you take a load of people who have plenty to eat and measure the speed of their hair growth. - That's the control group.



The control is when you do the experiment again without the thing that you're curious about, to see what's normal.

In a drug trial the control group would get a placebo.

So for example you give 100 people this new drug to make them more intelligent. You give them an IQ test before and after.
Yay! Their IQs all went up 3-5 points!

But wait.. the control group's IQ went up the same amount.

Now I know the drug was useless, and that the change was caused by something else. (Being less nervous the second time? Getting used to the way IQ tests work?)


I hope this helps.

Answer 2

control group is not tested.. its just the CONTROL group meaning you use them to check the diferences that ocur in contrast with the experimental group which is the one you are testing.. You CANT just one group and say the experiment will always happen the same..thats why you need a control group..LETS EXPLAIN THIS BETTER

the experiment: a research method that allows the researcher determine the cause of a behavior.

The experimental group: subject in the experiment, who are subjected to the independent variable

control group: subject that is NOT subjected to the independent variable.

example: lets say you were testing a drug... you would give the actual drug to the experimental drug, but since the people in that group know they are taking a drug, they could unconsciously act the effects (like in their mind) and confuse the experiment results, that why you will have a control group,, you can give them a "placebo" ( a candy or watever just to make them believe they are also taking the drug) since neither group knows who is taking the actual drug, then you are the only one knowing you is taking it and the real effects/ behaviors caused..

Answer 3

Thank you everyone!