Which option lists the three common measures of central tendency?

Which option lists the three common measures of central tendency?

• A. Mean, Median, Mode
• B. Mean, Median, Range
• C. Median, Mode, Standard Deviation
• D. Mean, Mode, Variance

Answer: (A)

Central tendency describes a typical or center value in a data set. The three common ways to quantify that center are the mean, the median, and the mode. The mean is the arithmetic average and uses every value in the data set, giving a balance point of the data. The median is the middle value when data are ordered, which makes it resistant to outliers and skewed data. The mode is the most frequently occurring value, which is especially handy for understanding the most common case and works with categorical data too. The other options mix in measures of spread rather than center. Range shows how far apart the extreme values are, and standard deviation or variance describe how spread out the data are around the center. Those are dispersion measures, not central-tendency measures, so they don’t belong in the list of common center measures. Therefore, mean, median, and mode are the three commonly used measures of central tendency.

Central tendency describes a typical or center value in a data set. The three common ways to quantify that center are the mean, the median, and the mode. The mean is the arithmetic average and uses every value in the data set, giving a balance point of the data. The median is the middle value when data are ordered, which makes it resistant to outliers and skewed data. The mode is the most frequently occurring value, which is especially handy for understanding the most common case and works with categorical data too.

The other options mix in measures of spread rather than center. Range shows how far apart the extreme values are, and standard deviation or variance describe how spread out the data are around the center. Those are dispersion measures, not central-tendency measures, so they don’t belong in the list of common center measures. Therefore, mean, median, and mode are the three commonly used measures of central tendency.