Normal Curve

Recall that the normal curve has four important properties:

1. Bell-shaped
2. Symmetrical
mean=median=mode at center of distribution
left-hand side (below mean) mirrors right-hand side (above mean)
3. Asymptotic
the frequency gradually decreases as you move out from the center (mean).
4. All normal curves have the same proportion of scores under the curve relative to a particular
location on the horizontal axis when scores are standardized (expressed in standard deviation
units called Z-scores)
The figure below shows the percentages under the normal curve associated with 1, 2, and 3 standard
deviations above and below the mean. Note that each side of the curve (above and below the mean) is
half of the distribution (50%).

A Z- score (also called standard score) is the number of standard deviations that a given raw score is
above or below the mean.

Y Y
Sy

We can also find a raw score given a Z-score using the following formula (an algebraic transformation of
the above formula):

The normal distribution table (Appendix B) tells you the proportion under the curve for all Z-scores.