Final answer:
The mean is the average value in a distribution while the standard deviation measures how spread out the data values are from the mean. The correct statement is that the mean represents the average and the standard deviation measures the spread of scores.
Step-by-step explanation:
The mean represents the average of a distribution, which is calculated by summing all the values in a set of data and dividing by the number of values. In contrast, the standard deviation measures the spread of the data values around the mean. This statistic indicates how much the values in the dataset vary from the mean, with a smaller standard deviation suggesting that the data points are closer to the mean and a larger standard deviation indicating that the data points are more dispersed.
In the context of the student's question, the correct statement is: 1) The mean represents the average of a distribution and the standard deviation measures the spread of its scores. This provides us with two important pieces of information: the central location of the data and the variability of the data around this central point.