What is gastroparesis? Gastroparesis, also called delayed gastric emptying, is a disorder that slows or stops the movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine. Normally, the muscles of the stomach, which are controlled by the vagus nerve, contract to break up food and move it through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
A variable is any factor, trait, or condition that can exist in differing amounts or types. An experiment usually has three kinds of variables: independent, dependent, and controlled. The independent variable is the one that is changed by the scientist. To ensure a fair test, a good experiment has only one independent variable. As the scientist changes the independent variable, he or she observes what happens. The scientist focuses his or her observations on the dependent variable to see how it responds to the change made to the independent variable.
The independent variable is independent because its variation does not depend on the variation of another variable in the experiment/research project. The independent variable is controlled or changed only by the researcher. This factor is often the research question/hypothesis behind the outcome of the experiment. In the above example, the researcher may have wanted to see if participating in the training program raised students' scores on a final test.