A common measure of spread for a distribution of scores is the standard deviation, and a common measure of spread for a distribution of means is the:
A) standard deviation.
B) variance.
C) standard error.
D) interquartile range.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The standard error is a measure of how much variability exists in the means of different samples that could have been drawn from the same population. It is calculated by dividing the standard deviation by the square root of the sample size. Therefore, the standard error is a better measure of spread for a distribution of means than the standard deviation or variance, which only apply to a distribution of scores. The interquartile range is also not applicable here as it only measures the range between the 25th and 75th percentiles of a distribution.

A Common Measure of Spread for a Distribution of Scores