Does the Manipulated Variable Change?

A manipulated variable is the independent variable in an experiment. It's called “manipulated” because it's the one you can change. In other words, you can decide ahead of time to increase it or decrease it. In an experiment you should only have one manipulated variable at a time.

Does the manipulated variable stay the same?

Essentially, a control variable is what is kept the same throughout the experiment, and it is not of primary concern in the experimental outcome. Any change in a control variable in an experiment would invalidate the correlation of dependent variables (DV) to the independent variable (IV), thus skewing the results.

What variables are manipulated or changed?

Variables that cause something to change are called independent variables or manipulated variables. Whether you choose to call it an independent variable or a manipulated variable depends on the term you pair it with.