An experimenter investigated the ability to concentrate as a function of crowding.Concentration was measured as the amount of time it took the participant to complete a word puzzle.How should the experimenter summarize the scores on the dependent variable?
A)Find the mode for crowding because crowding scores are nominal.
B)Find the mean amount of crowding,if crowding scores are normally distributed.
C)Find the mean amount of time it took to solve the puzzle,if time scores are normally distributed.
D)Find the median amount of time it took to solve the puzzle because time scores are ordinal.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Since concentration is being measured as the amount of time it took to complete the word puzzle, the most appropriate summary statistic is the mean amount of time. If the time scores are normally distributed, then the mean is the best measure of central tendency. The mode is not relevant since the crowding scores are not being measured as the dependent variable. Median is not the best choice since time scores are not necessarily ordinal - they could be measured on an interval or ratio scale.

An Experimenter Investigated the Ability to Concentrate as a Function