English to German Other Mathematics & Statistics Statistical analysis / SPSS

Hi,

"response variable" normally is "Zielvariable", "Antwortvariable" or "abhängige Variable" in German, while "target variable" would be a synonym. So what might "target reponse variable" mean?

I can't offer much context, it's software strings for an SPSS-module. There are also mere "target variables" as well as "target fields" and "target reponse fields". It is clear that there is an important difference between "target ..." and "target response ...", as there is one string saying: "Target variable, target response variable, weight variable and partition variable should be different."

Google is no help as we find only expressions like "target (response) variable", ie ones that equate "target" and "response".

Any ideas?