Independent variable refers to the factors or conditions that researchers actively manipulate and cause the dependent variable to change, so independent variable is regarded as the cause of the dependent variable.

Dependent variable means that a certain quantity will change with the change of one (or several) variables in the functional relationship.

In the specific experimental fields such as biology, the understanding of the dependent variable is that the dependent variable is the quantity that changes directly (determined by the purpose) because of the change of the independent variable. In specific experiments, there are models established by dependent variables and independent variables to observe the changes of other situations, and there are also many independent variables that complement each other to study the situation of a dependent variable (Darwin's father-son experiment in the process of auxin discovery), so that we can understand the significance of derivatives in mathematics.

Extended data:

Independent variables can be divided into continuous variables and category variables. If the independent variable manipulated by the experimenter is a continuous variable, the experiment is a functional experiment. If the independent variable manipulated by the experimenter is a category variable, the experiment is a factor type. In psychological experiments, an obvious problem is to have an organism as a subject to respond to stimuli. Obviously, the stimulus variables here are independent variables.

Restricted dependent variable means that the observed value of the dependent variable is continuous, but subject to some restrictions, the observed value obtained can not fully reflect the real situation of the dependent variable. For example, in an epidemiological survey, we take an indicator that can represent human health as a dependent variable, so as to study various factors that affect human health.

Now we have to measure the level of this index, but because of the detection limit of the instrument, we can't observe the value above or below a certain level. In practical application, we usually use the value of this limit level to replace those we can't observe.

Reference link: Baidu Encyclopedia-Independent variable

Baidu encyclopedia dependent variable