Researchers have routinely applied magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to explore differences in the brains of people with schizophrenia relative to the brains of people without schizophrenia. As stated in Section 13.6.3, one of the most consistent findings to emerge from such studies is enlarged brain ventricles in people with schizophrenia. In a typical study, all participants undergo an MRI of the brain and then the volume of the ventricles are measured. The measures taken from the participants with schizophrenia are then compared to the participants without schizophrenia to see if there is a statistical difference. Given this information, answer the following questions:

3. What is the dependent variable?

4. Can cause and effect conclusions be made from these studies? Why or why not?