Question

How do the terms ‘explanatory variable’ and ‘response variable’ relate to the terms ‘independent variable’ and ‘dependent variable.’

Answer 1

Hint: We discuss the different types of variables and their different names. We express the differences between them. The response variable is the focus of a question in a study or experiment. An explanatory variable is one that explains changes in that variable. It can be anything that might affect the response variable.

Complete answer:
We discuss correlation analysis which is a technique used to quantify the associations between two continuous variables. For example, we might want to quantify the association between body mass index and systolic blood pressure, or between hours of exercise per week and percent body fat. Regression analysis is a related technique to assess the relationship between an outcome variable and one or more risk factors or confounding variables (confounding is discussed later).
The outcome variable is also called the response or dependent variable, and the risk factors and confounders are called the predictors, or explanatory or independent variables. In regression analysis, the dependent variable is denoted "Y" and the independent variables are denoted by "X".

Note:
When a variable isn’t independent for certain, it’s an explanatory variable. The line between independent variables and explanatory variables is usually so unimportant that no one ever bothers. That’s unless you’re doing some advanced research involving lots of variables that can interact with each other.