Final answer:
The standard deviation measures the typical distance of any score from the mean, indicating the spread of data values around the mean.
Step-by-step explanation:
The standard deviation is the measure that estimates the typical distance of any score from the mean. It indicates how data values are spread out around the mean of a dataset. A standard deviation of a probability distribution measures the variability of outcomes around the expected value, or the mean. For example, in IQ testing, the average IQ score is set at 100, and a standard deviation is typically 15 points. Therefore, an IQ score that is one standard deviation from the mean would be either 85 or 115. The standard deviation provides context to large data sets and is a key concept in statistics for measuring the degree of variation or dispersion in a set of values.