ABSTRACT
In the last chapter, we considered methods by which a raw data matrix might be rearranged and presented in ways that added to our understanding of the information contained in the data. Although, in constructing grouped frequency distributions, we made some attempt to summarize the data, we did not carry this very far; we merely grouped the data into a smaller number of categories. This method cannot be carried very far, since, as the number of groups in the frequency distribution diminishes, the data lose definition. This makes it impossible to use a frequency distribution if we wish to find only one number that will adequately summarize the data; a frequency distribution with only one group would merely tell us the number of cases in the data matrix.
