A researcher believes that colder temperatures lead to more snowfall.The amount of snowfall is the ____ variable.

A) independent
B) dependent
C) spurious
D) sociological
E) all of these choices

The amount of snowfall is the variable being affected by the potential causal factor (temperature), making it the dependent variable. The independent variable is the factor being manipulated or observed, which in this case is temperature. Spurious refers to a third variable that may be mistakenly seen as a causal factor. Sociological is not relevant to this specific scenario.