Final answer:
In an experiment, replication is the process of applying each treatment to more than one experimental unit to avoid chance results and ensure reliability.
Step-by-step explanation:
Replication in an experiment refers to the process of applying each treatment to more than one experimental unit to ensure that results are reliable and not due to chance. Proper replication is essential to avoid biased sampling, which can lead to incorrect inferences about population-level effects. Additionally, random assignment plays a critical role by ensuring that there is no systematic difference between experimental groups.
Experiments designed with adequate replication and random assignment have the statistical power to detect real differences or effects, rather than spurious ones caused by variables other than the one being tested. Moreover, avoiding pseudo-replication by ensuring that the basic unit of comparison has adequate and independent samples is key to obtaining valid and generalizable results from an experiment.