THE STANDARD-DEVIATION AS AN INFORMATIVE MEASURE OF VARIABILITY IN REPORTING INTEROBSERVER AGREEMENT MEANS

The range is the measure of variability typically presented with the m eans of interobserver agreement scores of behavioral data. However, th e range by itself yields little information about the individual inter observer agreement scores before they were averaged. The standard devi ation, on the other hand, is a measure of variability that provides th e researcher and reader with information regarding the dispersion of s cores, allowing a more thorough interpretation of the interobserver ag reement mean. The case is presented for the adoption of the standard d eviation as an adjunct to the range in reporting the mean of interobse rver agreement scores. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd