TOPIC 3: MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY AND VARIABILITY

MULTIPLE CHOICE

___1. An industrial psychologist observed 8 drill-press operators for one working day.
She recorded the number of times each operator pressed the "faster" button instead of
the "stop" button to determine whether the design of the control panel was contributing
to the high rate of accidents in the plant. The resulting scores were as follows:

5, 2, 8, 2, 3, 2, 4, 12

The mode for this distribution is _________.

a. 2 c. 8
b. 3 d. there is no mode
___2. An industrial psychologist observed 8 drill-press operators for one working day.
She recorded the number of times each operator pressed the "faster" button instead of
the "stop" button to determine whether the design of the control panel was contributing
to the high rate of accidents in the plant. The resulting scores were as follows:

5, 2, 8, 2, 3, 2, 4, 12

The mean for this distribution is _________.

a. 3.52 c. 4.75
b. 5.43 d. 4.15
___3. An industrial psychologist observed 8 drill-press operators for one working day.
She recorded the number of times each operator pressed the "faster" button instead of
the "stop" button to determine whether the design of the control panel was contributing
to the high rate of accidents in the plant. The resulting scores were as follows:

5, 2, 8, 2, 3, 2, 4, 12

The standard deviation for this distribution is _________. Assume sample data.
a. 3.34 c. 2.28
b. 5.81 d. 3.58
___4. A history professor gives a quiz to his class and records the following scores:

13, 11, 11, 9, 12, 13, 16, 14, 11, 10, 8, 13, 20.

The mode(s) for this distribution is(are) _________.

a. 11 c. 11 and 13
b. 13 d. there is no mode

___5. A history professor gives a quiz to his class and records the following scores:
13, 11, 11, 9, 12, 13, 16, 14, 11, 10, 8, 13, 20.

The mean for this distribution is _________.

a. 12.38 c. 18.05
b. 13.42 d. 11.50
___6. A history professor gives a quiz to his class and records the following scores:

13, 11, 11, 9, 12, 13, 16, 14, 11, 10, 8, 13, 20.

The standard deviation for this distribution is _________. Assume sample scores.
a. 3.12 c. 13.26
b. 3.00 d. 12.74
___7. Consider the following scores: 21, 22, 22, 0.1, 20, 25, 28, 26, 23, 19, 0.5. Which
of the measures listed below would give the best description of the central tendency of
these scores?
a. mean c. range
b. variance d. median
___8. Let's assume that we have determined the salary of all the professors at your
school. In plotting the distribution of salaries we notice that it is positively skewed. For
this distribution _________.
a. mean = median c. mean > median
b. mean < median d. can't tell from the information given
___9. A distribution has a mean of 78 and a median of 92. This distribution is
_________.
a. symmetrical c. positively skewed
b. negatively skewed d. not enough information given
___10. On a physics exam, the instructor gives a bonus question worth 10 points. The
class average (mean) without counting the bonus question is 83. If everyone gets the
bonus question correct, the class mean would _________.
a. remain the same c. equal 93
b. equal 83 + 10/N d. exceed the median
___11. Which of the following is not a property of the mean?
a. The mean is sensitive to the exact value of all the scores.
b. The sum of the deviations about the mean equals zero.
c. The sum of the squared deviations about the mean is a minimum.
d. The mean is most subject to sampling variation.
e. The mean is most affected by extreme scores.
___12. In a bell-shaped distribution, _________.
a. median = mean
b. median > mean
c. median < mean
d. standard deviation equals variance
___13. Which of the following is not a measure of variability?
a. standard deviation
b. range
c. sum of squares
d. variance
e. all of these are measures of variability

___14. In calculating the standard deviation of a sample, we use _________ in the

denominator.
a. N c. the sum of the weights
b. N-1 d. X
___15. Which of the following is (are) not true?
a. μ stands for the mean of a population
b. σ stands for the standard deviation of a population
c. s stands for the standard deviation of a sample
d. stands for the mean of a sample
e. stands for the variance of a population
f. all of these are true
___16. The mean is _______ sensitive to extreme scores than the median.
a. more
b. less
c. equally
d. The correct answer cannot be determined without the scores.

___17. is called _________.

a. standard deviation
b. mean
c. variance
d. sum of squares
e. confusing

___18. equals_______.
a. the sum of squares c. 1
b. 0 d. cannot be determined
___19. Which of the following is not a measure of central tendency?
a. mode c. mean
b. median d. standard deviation
___20. If s = 12 for a set of 200 scores and 5 points were subtracted from each of the
scores, the new value of the standard deviation would be _________.
a. 12/5 c. 12 - 5

b. d. 12
___21. Considering again the information in problem 40, what would be the effect of
adding those same new scores on the value of s?
a. increase s
b. decrease s
c. s would remain unchanged
d. cannot be determined from the information given

___22. Consider a distribution with N = 100, = 50, and = 9875. If 10

new scores of 50 were added to the distribution, what would happen to the sum of
squares?
a. the value would increase
b. the value would decrease
c. the value would remain unchanged
d. cannot be determined from information given
___23. Given the following set of scores

X: 10, 12, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 13, 5, 0, 1

What is the median?

a. 8 c. 10
b. 9 d. 11
___24. Given the following set of scores

X: 10, 12, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 13, 5, 0, 1

What is the range?

a. 0 c. 1
b. 13 d. 3.6
___25. Given the following set of scores

X: 10, 12, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 13, 5, 0, 1

What is the value of ?

a. 4.54 c. 1
b. 206 d. 0
___26. If the following scores were population scores

X: 10, 12, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 13, 5, 0, 1

What would the standard deviation be?

a. 4.33 c. 4.54
b. 6.92 d. 10

TRUE OR FALSE

FALSE 27. In general, Σ X2 = (Σ X) 2

FALSE 28. The mode is used extensively in the behavioral sciences.

TRUE 29. The median and the 50th percentile rank score will always have the same
value.

FALSE 30. When calculating the population standard deviation, we use N − 1 in the
denominator.