Final answer:
The question refers to distributional parameters which involve comparing populations based on central tendencies (mean, median, mode) while other characteristics like variance and skewness remain unchanged.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question 'The population distributions are identical in all other respects except for central tendency' refers to distributional parameters. In statistics, distributional parameters are values that describe certain aspects of the distribution of a set of data, such as the central tendency, which includes mean, median, and mode. Contrasting populations based on central tendency alone points out differences in the average values of the populations while keeping other characteristics like variance and skewness constant.
If we consider that in symmetrical distributions the mean and the median are both centrally located close to the high point of the distribution, which is the mode, then the distributions being questioned likely differ in one of these measures or all three.