Control group – Baby’s that listen to no music

Experimental Group 1 – classical music babys

Experimantal group 2 – rock music babys

and so on.

Experimental group: the group that is experiencing the stimulus (drug, energy, etc.)

Data is reported on both groups. The control group lets you know how the experimental agent/stimulus affects the experimental group by comparing the data for both.

Make sense?

For example, suppose we are trying out a new pain drug. Ten patients get a sugar pill but don’t know it. Ten patients take the experiemental drug but also don’t know whether they are getting the drug or the sugar pill. The pills all look the same. We compare pain relief for both groups based on a scale of one to ten. If pain remains the same for both groups, then we can expect that the medicine does not work. If one group starts feeling better and one doesn’t, then we can think maybe the experimental drug works. Make sense?

Hope so. If it doesn’t, let me know and I’ll explain it another way. Good luck. Hope this helps.