- Describe the differences in variability in histograms and dotplots.
- Calculate and describe standard deviation.
Standard Deviation using Technology
Let’s use the statistical software to calculate standard deviation.
Step 1: Select the Single Group tab.
Step 2: Locate the drop-down menu under Enter Data and select From Textbook.
Step 3: Locate the drop-down menu under Data Set and select Sleep Study: Average Sleep.
Recall: The sleep study data set investigated whether college students’ chronotypes tend to be larks (morning people) or owls (night people).
[Trouble viewing? Click to open in a new tab.]
The larger the value of the standard deviation of the data set, the larger the variability. The smaller the value of the standard deviation, the smaller variability that exists. Because standard deviation is an indication of how reliable our data set is, it helps us to make an inference about what the likely range of values in the true population mean.