Learn Before
Interpreting a 'Typical' Value
A researcher reports that the 'typical' number of hours of video games played per week by a group of 10 participants is 8 hours. Upon examining the raw data, you discover that 5 of the participants played for 1 hour and the other 5 participants played for 15 hours. Critique the researcher's use of the single 8-hour value to describe this group. Why might this summary value be misleading in this specific case?
0
1
Tags
Ch.2 Psychological Research - Psychology @ OpenStax
Psychology @ OpenStax
Introduction to Psychology @ OpenStax Course
OpenStax
OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook
Psychology
Social Science
Empirical Science
Science
Analysis in Bloom's Taxonomy
Cognitive Psychology
Related
Interpreting a 'Typical' Value
A developmental psychologist studies the number of words spoken in a day by a group of 20 toddlers. The data shows a wide variation, with some toddlers speaking very few words and others speaking many. The psychologist wants to calculate a single value to best represent the 'typical' number of words spoken by a toddler in this group. What is the primary justification for this statistical approach?
Median
Mode
Mean
In psychological research, what is the primary purpose of using measures of central tendency?