"levels" or "conditions" are interchangeable terms for the different conditions within an independent variable. If name introduction was the independent variable one condition might be "yes", the server did introduce herself by name; and the other condition would be "no", the server did not introduce herself by name. If credit card logo on tip tray one condition would be "yes logo" and the other condition would be "No logo".
Another example, in a correlational study we might be studying Gender and then the 2 levels or conditions would be Male or Female or if we were studying Religious Affiliation the 4 levels could be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Other.
In a true experiment we call the different stimuli or experiences each group of participants is exposed to "the conditions" or "the levels" and in a correlational study the categories we use to divide the participants up into groups (e.g. gender or religion, restaurant patrons chose to go to, and so on) are the levels or conditions of the experiment.
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