When the goal is to determine the average number of hours American adolescents spend watching television, the resulting value describes the population and is known as a ______.

When the goal is to determine the average number of hours American adolescents spend watching television, the resulting value describes the population and is known as a ______.

• A. Parameter
• B. Statistic
• C. Population
• D. Sample

Answer: (A)

This item is about the difference between a parameter and a statistic. A parameter is a numerical summary that describes a whole population—the entire group you’re interested in. In this scenario, if you could measure every American adolescent and compute their average hours of TV watching, that average would be a population parameter. If you instead collected data from just a subset and computed its average, that value would be a statistic—an estimate of the population parameter that can vary from sample to sample. The population is the group of interest, while a sample is just a part of that group.

This item is about the difference between a parameter and a statistic. A parameter is a numerical summary that describes a whole population—the entire group you’re interested in. In this scenario, if you could measure every American adolescent and compute their average hours of TV watching, that average would be a population parameter. If you instead collected data from just a subset and computed its average, that value would be a statistic—an estimate of the population parameter that can vary from sample to sample. The population is the group of interest, while a sample is just a part of that group.