Which statistical term is defined as the difference between the highest and lowest scores?

The term that refers to the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a data set is known as the range. The range provides a simple measure of variability, indicating how spread out the scores are. By subtracting the minimum score from the maximum score, the range highlights the extremes of the data, giving a quick sense of the extent of scoring variation. This is particularly valuable for understanding the distribution of scores in a given dataset, as it showcases the overall span of the data without delving into how individual scores cluster around a central value.

The mean, variance, and standard deviation, while important statistical concepts, serve different purposes. The mean calculates the average of all scores, variance measures the degree to which scores differ from the mean, and the standard deviation quantifies the average distance of scores from the mean. None of these measures directly convey the difference between the highest and lowest values, which is why the range is the correct answer in this context.