Measures of Central Tendency Variability and Standard Scores

Norton says triangulate.html

Measurement Scales

There are of four types of measurement scales and it was once thought that each must be dealt with in a unique manner statisticallynot true!

Nominal Scales the numeric values are designations for

name qualities
numbers worn by athletes car models (1,2n) gender identity (1=male, 2=female) the data is % within each category

Ordinal Scales --more or less of a certain quality or

quantity the scale is designed to describe, but units are of unequal size (and distance)
Again, there are of four types of measurement scales and it was once thought that each must be dealt with in a unique manner statistically (e.g., Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis, Friedman) not true! difference in speed between 1st & 2nd place runners is not the same as between 3rd & 4th evaluation scales, e.g,
excellent, commendable, satisfactory, unsatisfactory Intelligence and achievement test scores

Interval Scales have equal size units, but the scale has no absolute zero
Fahrenheit thermometers have equal units but zero does not indicate absence of heat

Ratio Scale has equal intervals but zero means an absence of a quantity being measured
height & weight

Statistic

Parameter

Sample

Population

A population is any group of people, all of whom have at least one characteristic in common A sample is a selected smaller subset of the population

Statistic

Parameter
Draw Generalizations

Sample

Population

To make generalizations from a sample, it needs to be representative of the larger population from which it is taken The sample is randomly selected. This requires that each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected each time a selection is made.

Measures of Central Tendency

Data come to us in disarray so we create ordered arrays to facilitate deriving meaning from the data. A set of IQ scores might come to us like this: 75, 100, 105, 95, 120, 130, 95, 90, 115, 85, 115, 100, 110, 100, 110 Often, scores are in an array from highest to lowest

N=15

1545

X 130 120 115 115 110 110 105 100 100 100 95 95 90 85 75

The mean, or arithmetic average of the array, is equal to the sum of the scores divided by the number of scores. All the IQ scores added together divided by the number of people for whom we have scores
symbol for mean

score
Mode = 100
summation

n number of scores
Our formula is

n 1545 103 n 15

The mean is

X 130 120 115 115 110 110 105 100 100 100 95 95 90 85 75

The median is the point in the distribution exactly at which 50% of cases fall below and 50% fall above. It is the middlemost score value. (Odd #) Sometimes eyeballing the distribution identifies the mediansometimes not. Mdn is first a location

Mdn (n 1) / 2 (15 1) / 2 16 / 2 8th score

and then a score value Mdn = 100, the 8th IQ score

Compare 2 distributions X 120 118 115 N=6 114 114 112 693

n 693 6 115.5

X 120 118 115 114 114 6 587

587 6 97.83

But what is the median? In arrays with an even number of scores, Mdn = the average of the two scores in the middle Here, Mdn = 114 + 115/2, = 229/2, = 114.5 (for both gps)

The type of frequency distribution below is commonly displayed with computer data analysis Computation of is slightly different in this instance Each score is multiplied by its frequency. The products are summed and divided by the number of scores.

X 130 120 115 110 105 100 95 90 85 75

f 1 1 2 2 1 3 2 1 1 1 N 15

f n 1545 103 15

fX 130 120 230 220 105 300 190 90 85 75 1545

When scores are arranged by frequency, often a normal curve emerges

X 19 17 15 13 11 9 7 5 4 1

f 1 1 2 3 4 6 5 4 2 1

X X XX XXX XXXX XXXXXX XXXXX XXXX XX X

Weighted means:

Sample

A 10.5 20

B 14.2 35

C 11.1 10

Grand mean, or weighted average

n n n ... n n n n ... n
1 1 2 2 3 3 g 1 2 3 g

20(10.5) 35(14.2) 10(11.1) 20 35 10 210 497 111 818 12.58 65 65

35.8 11.9 3

Measures of central tendency and relative position tell only part of the story about distributions.

Even more important is the variability among individual scores.

Viva la difference

Comparison of SAT Scores from Two Schools

Central High Lake Wobegon High The average scores for the two schools is identical.

1000 hi 1100 lo 900

1000 hi 1500 lo 500

But the distribution of scores is very different How would you describe these two schools in terms of their differences?

The best measure of dispersion would tie every score to the same origin. If we could find the average distance of every score from the mean, we would have a standard yardstick for dispersion for a given distribution of scores. Puts everything on the same metric

To do this, we compute the average difference from the mean.

This provides a standard value for dispersion of scores within the distribution, the standard deviation

Raw Score Formula for Variance and Standard Deviation

___ 5 7 9 11 18 3 _4_ 57
X ___ 25 49 81 121 324 9 _16_ 625
2

N () 2 N

Sum of Squares

625 7(8.1428) 2 7 625 464.136 7

N ( )2

8 . 1428

22 . 9807

4.7938

___ 5 7 9 11 18 3 _4_ 57 _______ -3.1428 -1.428 .9572 2.8572 9.8572 -5.1428 -4.1428 00.00

( ) N
160 .8573 7

( ) _______
9.8711 1.3059 .7348 8.1635 97.1645 26.1483 17.1627 160.8573

22.9796

4.7938

8.1428 ( or 57/7)

This is the standard deviation of a population; however, it is rarely employed by way of this deviation formula. The deviation formula is not a formula for computing standard deviation (population or sample).

Definitional Formula

Computational Formula

Raw Score Formula

( ) N

N ( ) 2 N

160 .8573 7

625 8 . 1428 7

625 7(8.1428) 2 7 625 464.136 7

22.9796

89 .2857 66 .305

4.7938

22 . 9807

22 . 9807

4 .7938

4 . 7938

To check this on psychStats, select Univariate Parametric

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Select Mean and SD for a Population

Enter 7 for the number of data points

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Enter the 7 data points

Do they match?

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Same Scores; however, now we have the Raw Score Formula for the standard deviation based on a sample

n( ) 2 n 1
2

___ 5 7 9 11 18 3 _4_ 57

2 ___ X 25 49 81 121 324 9 _16_ 625

625 7(8.1428) 2 s 6
s 625 464.1363 6

s 26.8106
s 5.17789

8.1428 ( or 57/7)

Select Mean and SD for a Sample

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Enter 7 for the number of data points

Enter the 7 data points and click finish

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This is the standard deviation based on a sample

Data entry for psychNet and SPSS Save with unique name as a CSV file on your desktop

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Select Univariate Applications

Indicate 7 rows and 1 column above Sample Stats then click Sample Stats

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When your file become visible double click or hit open

Scroll down the left panel until your results appear

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For homework, do four problems and check them on psychStats. For example:

S
___ 6 9 5 4 7 _5_ 36
2 ___ X 36 81 25 16 49 _25_ 232

n( ) 2 n 1
2

Raw Score Formula for standard deviation based on a sample

___ 6 9 5 4 7 _5_ 36

2 ___ X 36 81 25 16 49 _25_ 232

n( ) 2

n 1

232 6 ( 6 ) 2 5

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Raw Score Formula for standard deviation based on a sample

n( ) 2 n 1
2

___ 6 9 5 4 7 _5_ 36

2 ___ X 36 81 25 16 49 _25_ 232

232 6(6)2 5
232 216 5

Raw Score Formula for standard deviation based on a sample

n( ) 2

n 1

___ 6 9 5 4 7 _5_ 36

2 ___ X 36 81 25 16 49 _25_ 232

232 6 ( 6 ) 2 5

232 216 5
S 3.2

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Raw Score Formula for standard deviation based on a sample

n( )2

n 1

___ 6 9 5 4 7 _5_ 36

2 ___ X 36 81 25 16 49 _25_ 232

232

6 (6 )2 5
232 216 5

3 .2

s 1 . 789

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Chris Ninness & Mike Coffee Supported by an SFA Research Development Grant (#183708) Artificial Neural Network Analyses (ANNA), Permutation Tests, and Related Online Statistical Procedures: http://www.crgsc.org/faculty/psychstats Upload SOM neural net data on link below: http://192.70.161.52/psychstatssom/

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The 68-95-99.7 Rule for a Normal Distribution

(mean)

The 68-95-99.7 Rule for a Normal Distribution

(just over two thirds)
68% within 1 standard deviation of the mean

(mean)

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The 68-95-99.7 Rule for a Normal Distribution

(most)
95% within 2 standard deviations of the mean 68% within 1 standard deviation of the mean

-2

(mean)

+2

The 68 - 95 - 99.7 Rule for a Normal Distribution

99.7% within 3 standard deviations of the mean 95% within 2 standard deviations of the mean 68% within 1 standard deviation of the mean

(virtually all)

-3

-2

(mean)

+2

+3

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Z-Score Formula
standard score = z = data value mean standard deviation

Example: If the nationwide ACT mean were 21 with a standard deviation of 4.7, find the z-score for a 30. What does this mean?
z = 30 21 = 1.91 4.7

This means that an ACT score of 30 would be about 1.91 standard deviations above the mean of 21.

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Standard Scores and Percentiles

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Question
Example: Norton gets a 50 on his Statistics midterm and a 50 on his Calculus midterm. Did he do equally well on these two exams? Question: How can we compare a persons score on different variables?

Consider the first circumstance:

Statistics

Calculus

In one class, Nortons exam score is 10 points above the mean In the other class, Nortons exam score is 10 points below the mean In an important sense, we must interpret Nortons grade relative to the average performance of each class

Mean Statistics = 40

Mean Calculus = 60

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Consider the second circumstance:

Both distributions have the same mean (40), but different standard deviations (10 vs. 20) In one class, Norton is performing better than almost 95% of the class. In the other, he is performing better than approximately 68% of the class. Thus, how we evaluate Nortons performance depends on how much variability there is in the exam scores

Standard Scores
Basically, we would like to be able to express his score with respect to both (a) the mean of the group and (b) the variability of the scores how far Norton is from the mean (score-mean) variability in each of Nortons classes (standard deviation)

(X ) Z

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Example 1
Norton in Statistics: (50 - 40)/10 = 1 (one standard deviation above the mean)

Norton in Calculus (50 - 60)/10 = -1 (one standard deviation below the mean)

Example 2
An example where the means are identical, but the two sets of scores have different spreads (distributions)

Nortons Stats z-score (50-40)/5 = 2 95thPercentile rank

Nortons Calc z-score (50-40)/20 = .5 68thPercentile rank

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Converting to Standard Scores:

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Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) The NCE is used in the evaluation of remedial education and other special programs. Because NCEs are equal-interval scores, they are often used for comparing achievement across subject areas over time. Because NCEs have no inherent meaning, national percentiles are generally preferred when reporting results to parents and the general public

Normal Curve Equivalent scores (NCE): A normal curve equivalent score is a type of normreferenced score. It differs from percentile rank score in that it allows meaningful comparison between different test sections within a test. For example, if a student receives NCE scores of 53 on the Reading test and 45 on the Mathematics test, you can correctly say that the Reading score is eight points higher than the Mathematics score. NCEs are represented on a scale of 1 - 99. This scale coincides with a percentile rank scale at 1, 50, and 99. Unlike percentile rank scores, the interval between scores is equal. This means that you can average NCE scores to compare groups of students or schools.

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