Descriptive statistics
Success criteria
SC-1 SC-2 SC-3
I will be able to describe range, I will be able to do the numerical I will be able to apply the
mode, median and mean calculation of range, mode, median application of range,median, and
and mean mean in novel scenario situations
LO kw
• To apply descriptive statistics in
novel scenario situations.
What is descriptive statistics?
• Descriptive statistics are used to summarise raw data – the whole set
of scores from a study – before any analysis takes place.
• It is a ways of summarising data to make raw data easier to
understand.
• Descriptive statistics include the mean, median, mode, range and also
graphs.
The Range
• The range is a measure of dispersion.
• It is the difference between the smallest and largest score in a set of
data, and indicates the spread of the data.
• In a class test, for example, the highest score out of 28 students was
58 per cent and the lowest was 50 per cent. The spread of scores
here is small at just 8 per cent.
• A different class took the test, the highest score was 78 per cent and
the lowest score was 40 per cent, a range of 38 per cent. This shows
the variability in the performance in the second class was much
greater.
Eg: Scores showing the time taken to
complete a jigsaw in minutes
Range=Highest Value−Lowest Value
Core Task: 1
A psychologist conducts a study on memory and records the number of
words correctly recalled by six participants:
Participants' Scores (Number of words recalled): 12, 18, 9, 21, 15, 17
Calculate the range for the number of words recalled. (2 marks)
Core Task:2
A psychologist conducted a study on how quickly people react to a
sudden noise.
The reaction times (in milliseconds) for seven participants were
recorded as:210, 185, 250, 201, 195, 230, 182
Calculate the range of the reaction times. (2 marks)
Mode
• The mode is the number that appears most often in a set of numbers.
• If there are two modes, the data are bi-modal.
• More than two modes is called multi-modal. The mode can be
applied to all numbers in a dataset whatever the numbers represent,
including time, ranked numbers and categories.
Core Task: 3
A researcher investigated the time (in seconds) it took for participants
to solve a puzzle. The scores from eight participants were recorded:
Time to solve (seconds): 15, 12, 18, 15, 14, 20, 15, 17
Calculate the mode for the time taken to solve the puzzle. (1 mark)
The median
The median is the middle score of a set of numbers and is applied to
data that are ranked.
The median is a measure of central tendency in descriptive statistics,
which represents the middle value of a data set.
Core Task: 4
A psychology student recorded the reaction times (in seconds) of eight
participants in a memory task:
Reaction Times (seconds): 1.25, 0.98, 1.05, 1.40, 1.15, 1.00, 1.35, 1.20
Calculate the median reaction time. (2 marks)
The MEAN (arithmetic mean/average)
• The mean is the average and is found by adding up all the numbers in
the dataset and then dividing by the number of data points.
• Data points are items of data that contribute to a dataset.
• The mean is also called the arithmetic mean.
• The mean/arithmetic mean can only be applied to data that are
actual measures, such as time, temperature and age.
Core task - 5
A psychologist investigated the effect of background music on
concentration. Ten participants were given a puzzle to complete and their
time (in seconds) was recorded.
The times (in seconds) are: 15, 12, 18, 14, 15, 20, 15, 12, 17, 22
Using the data above, calculate the following descriptive statistics:
• Mode (1 mark)
• Median (2 marks)
• Mean (3 marks)