Treatment and control groups

In the design of experiments, treatments are applied to experimental units in the treatment group(s). In comparative experiments, members of the complementary group, the control group, receive either no treatment or a standard treatment.

For the conclusions drawn from the results of an experiment to have validity, it is essential that the items or patients assigned to treatment and control groups be representative of the same population. In some experiments, such as many in agriculture or psychology, this can be achieved by randomly assigning items from a common population to one of the treatment and control groups. In studies of twins involving just one treatment group and a control group, it is statistically efficient to do this random assignment separately for each pair of twins, so that one is in the treatment group and one in the control group.

In some medical studies, where it may be unethical not to treat patients who present with symptoms, controls may be given a standard treatment, rather than no treatment at all. Another alternative is to select controls from a wider population, provided that this population is well-defined and that those presenting with symptoms at the clinic are representative of those in the wider population.

Control Group

Control Group was a technology and design consultancy firm, founded in 2001 in Lower Manhattan, New York City, by Campbell Hyers, Scott Anderson, and Colin O'Donnell.

Notable work

Control Group manages creative technology projects from concept design to production and implementation/installation, in addition to full support of IT infrastructure.

New York City subway "On the Go!" wayfinding kiosks

The company's partnership with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (New York) has resulted in the planned deployment of anywhere from 47–90 digital wayfinding "On the Go!" kiosks to stations throughout the New York City Subway system in 2013. Control Group is designing the platform to deliver real-time information such as route lookup, countdown to train arrivals, and service alerts.

Kate Spade's Japanese flagship store Saturday

Control Group developed an iPad based system to replace paper signage for things like sizing charts, style videos, and in-store offers. The platform may later power point of sale, employee training, shopping analytics, and supply chain management in a later iteration.