Note: If more than $13,000 of debt is canceled in one year, the gift giver has to file a gift tax return (although they almost certainly will not owe a tax). That should not affect you as the recipient. Example: Roxy borrowed $6,000 from her dad while she was unemployed. She wrote up a promissory note for the debt.
Control Group and Experimental Group. True experiments must have a control group, which is a group of research participants that resemble the experimental group but do not receive the experimental treatment. The control group provides a reliable baseline data to which you can compare the experimental results.
This typically requires the research to be conducted in a lab, with one group being placed in an experimental group, or the ones being manipulated, while the other is placed in a placebo group, or inert condition or non-manipulated group. A laboratory-based experiment gives a high level of control and reliability. Non-experimental research is the label given to a study when a researcher cannot control, manipulate or alter the predictor variable or subjects, but instead, relies on interpretation, observation or interactions to come to a conclusion.