1.8 - Analysing data Flashcards
(39 cards)
What does a histogram show us?
How many times each score occurs
What is the y-axis on a histogram?
Frequency
Why are histograms useful?
Can assess properties of the distribution of scores
What are 3 characteristics of a normal distribution?
Symmetrical across the mean
Bell-shaped curve
Tails touch infinity line either side
What are 2 ways in which distributions can deviate from normal?
Skew
Kurtosis
What types of skew are there?
Positive
Negative
What does a positively skewed graph look like?
Tails end at the positive end of the scale
What does a negatively skewed graph look like?
Tails end at the lower end of the scale
What does skew mean?
Lack of symmetry
Most frequent scores are clustered at one end of the scale
What is kurtosis?
Refers to the pointiness of the graph
What are 3 types of kurtosis?
Leptokurtic
Mesokurtic
Platykurtic
What does a platykurtic graph look like?
Flat distribution
Thin tailed
Negative kurtosis
What does a leptokurtic graph look like?
Pointy
Heavy tailed
Positive kurtosis
What does a mesokurtic graph look like?
Relatively normal distribution
What are 3 common measures of central tendency?
Mean
Median
Mode
What is the mode?
The score that occurs most frequently in a data set
How do you spot the mode on a histogram?
Tallest bar
What does bimodal mean?
Distribution with 2 modes
What does multimodal mean?
Data sets with more than 2 modes
What is the median?
The middle score when ranked in order
What data can median be used for?
Ordinal
Also interval and ratio
What data can the mode be used on?
Nominal
All types
What is the mean?
Average of scores
What is a disadvantage of the mean?
Influenced by extreme scores and affected by skewed distributions