Two groups of subjects are combined in a psychological research experiment. The mode score for group A is 7 and the mode score for group B is 6. Which of the following conclusions can be made?
A. The mode for the whole group is 6.
B. The mode for the whole group is between 6 and 7.
C. The mode for the whole group is 7.
D. The mode cannot be determined from the given information.
Answer:D
Two groups of subjects are combined in a psychological research experiment. The mode score for group A is 7 and the mode score for group B is 6. Which of the following conclusions can be made?
A. The mode for the whole group is 6. B. The mode for the whole group is between 6 and 7. C. The mode for the whole group is 7. D. The mode cannot be determined from the given information.
Explanation: D The mode of the combined groups cannot be determined without knowing exactly what scores each group received. To illustrate this, plug in! Let's say that the scores of Group A were {1, 1, 7, 7, 7}, and the scores for Group B were {1, 1, 6, 6, 6}. The scores of the whole group would, therefore, be {1, 1, 1, 1, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7}. This set has a mode of 1, so eliminate (A), (B), and (C) and choose (D).