control
Last edited
September 20, 2009
More by Glossary of selected Judgement and Decision-making, Belief-related, and other Psychology terms »
More by Glossary of selected Judgement and Decision-making, Belief-related, and other Psychology terms »
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Control In experimental science, the process of separating out or eliminating extraneous factors which could affect the outcome of a study between two groups of subjects, in which one is exposed to a suspected cause and the other is not, so that any effects can be compared across subject groups.
The goal is to identify important causal factors, in reference to the hypothesis being tested, and to exclude the effects of irrelevant variables so that only the experimental variable is allowed to change, with such regulation of the facets of experiments accomplished through the exercise of scientific methodologies. More generally: restrain or direct the action of; limit or regulate the state of functioning or extent of something (e.g., pest organisms); manage, exercise authority or command over something (e.g., the military power of a nation, etc.); operate something (e.g., machine), especially in an effective, orderly, and co-ordinated manner. (see also: experimental research, control group, double-blind, experimenter bias, randomized assignment, confound/confounding, variable, correlation) Back to: Glossary A-Z
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