For each of the following situations, identify the measure of central tendency (mean, median, or mode) that would provide the best description of the average score:
a. A new reporter interviewed people shopping in a local mall and asked how much they spent on summer vacations. Most people traveled locally and reported modest amounts but one couple had flown to Paris for a month and paid a small fortune.
b. A marketing researcher asked consumers to select their favorite from a set of four designs for a new product logo.
c. A driving instructor recorded the number of orange cones that each student ran over during the first attempt a parallel parking.
a. Mean is most influenced by deviant scores, since it acts as a fulcrum (balance point) for the distribution — median.
b. Only a nominal scale — mode.
http://drdavespsychologypage.intuitwebsites.com/Two___Two_____four.pdf
c. If normal distribution — mean. If not — median.
a. In this situation, where there is one extreme outlier (the couple who flew to Paris and paid a small fortune), the median would provide the best description of the average score. The median is the middle value when scores are arranged in ascending order, and it is less affected by outliers.
b. In this situation, where consumers are selecting their favorite from a set of options, the mode would provide the best description of the average score. The mode represents the most frequently chosen option.
c. In this situation, where the number of orange cones ran over by each student is being recorded, the mean would provide the best description of the average score. The mean is calculated by summing all the scores and dividing by the total number of scores, and it provides a general representation of the average score.
a. For this situation, the best measure of central tendency would be the median. The median represents the middle value in a dataset when it is ordered. In this case, most people reported modest amounts for their vacation expenses, but there was one extreme value with a small fortune spent on a trip to Paris. The median would be a good choice because it is not affected by extreme values or outliers, and it would give a better representation of the typical amount spent on summer vacations by the majority of people.
To calculate the median, you would need to arrange the recorded amounts in ascending order and find the middle value. If there is an even number of values, then the median would be the average of the two middle values.
b. In this situation, the best measure of central tendency would be the mode. The mode represents the value that appears the most frequently in a dataset. Since the researcher wants to determine the favorite logo design, the mode would provide the best description of the most popular choice among consumers.
To find the mode, you would need to identify the design that has the highest frequency, i.e., the design that consumers selected the most.
c. For this situation, the best measure of central tendency would be the mean. The mean represents the average value of a dataset. By recording the number of cones each student ran over during parallel parking, the driving instructor can calculate the mean to get an idea of the typical number of cones students tend to hit on their first attempt.
To calculate the mean, you would need to sum up the recorded number of cones and divide it by the total number of students.