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Which measures of center and spread should be used for data that is strongly skewed with outliers?

A. Mean and standard deviation
B. Median and interquartile range
C. Mode and range
D. Mean and interquartile range

1 Answer

4 votes

Final answer:

For skewed data with outliers, the median and interquartile range are the recommended measures for center and spread, respectively, as they are less influenced by extreme values.

Step-by-step explanation:

For data that is strongly skewed with outliers, the most appropriate measures of center and spread would be B. Median and interquartile range (IQR). The median is resistant to the effects of outliers and provides a better measure of the center for such a distribution. Conversely, the mean can be heavily influenced by outliers and extremes. IQR is preferred for the spread of skewed data because it focuses on the middle 50% of the data, thus reducing the impact of outliers. In contrast, the standard deviation may not be representative of the data spread as it takes into account the entire range of data, which could be inflated by outliers.

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