What is the role of a control group in an experiment?

The role of a control group in an experiment is to serve as a comparison standard. A control group is crucial for establishing a baseline against which the effects of the experimental treatment can be measured. By having a group that does not receive the treatment or intervention, researchers can directly observe the impact of their manipulation on the experimental group. This helps to determine whether any observed effects are due to the treatment itself rather than other extraneous variables or natural variations in the data.

In experimental designs, the control group helps to confirm that any changes in the dependent variable can be attributed to the independent variable. It provides a standard of comparison that underscores the validity of the experiment's findings, allowing researchers to make informed conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships.

Other options, while relevant in different contexts, do not accurately capture the primary purpose of a control group. For instance, introducing random error does not relate to the control group's function; its goal is not to introduce variables that could confuse the results. Ensuring ethical treatment of participants is a broader consideration that applies to all groups in an experiment and is not specific to the control group. Lastly, while representation of the population sample is important for generalizability, it is not a specific function of the control group within the experimental design