Your Turn Answers

Define these key terms

1. Latent variable: a variable that we didn’t measure but infer from our data

2. Mean: the average value, calculated as the sum of the values divided by n

3. Standard deviation: the spread of values, calculated as the square root of the sum of the squared deviations divided by n

Fill in the gaps

1. The median is the middle value in an ordinal data set.

2. The inter-quartile range can be used to measure dispersion in an ordinal variable.

3. The measure of central tendency for a categorical variable is the mode.

Identify the variable type for each of the variables

Variable

Method

Type of Measurement

Interval/Categorical/Ordinal

Happiness

Self-rated report using a Likert scale

Ordinal

Dog

Organized by breed

Categorical

Height

Scale in centimetres

Interval

Weather

mm of rainfall

Interval

Caffeine status

Measurements taken before and after drinking coffee

Categorical

Social media

Hours spent on social media

Interval

Pain

Self-rated using a low-high set of options

Ordinal

Top level of education

Categorizing from primary school through to postgraduate

Ordinal