Final answer:
There are three ways a researcher can summarize the central tendency of a variable: mode, median, and mean.
Step-by-step explanation:
There are three ways a researcher can summarize the central tendency of a variable: mode, median, and mean. The mode is the most frequently occurring value in a dataset. The median is the middle value when the data is arranged in ascending or descending order. The mean is the arithmetic average of all the data points.
For example, let's consider the following dataset: 2, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8. The mode is 6 because it appears twice and no other value appears more than that. The median is 6 because it is the middle value when the data is arranged in ascending order. The mean is (2+4+6+6+7+8)/6 = 5.5.
These measures provide a summary of what a typical response looks like and help researchers understand the data better.