What term describes a distribution of scores where one end has more variability than the other?

The term that describes a distribution of scores where one end has more variability than the other is heteroscedasticity. This concept is particularly relevant in statistics and data analysis, where it refers to a situation in which the variability of a variable is unequal across the range of values of a second variable that predicts it. In a heteroscedastic distribution, you might find that the spread of the data points increases or decreases depending on the value of the independent variable, indicating that the data does not have a constant level of variability.

In contrast, an example of homoscedasticity would be a situation where the spread of the residuals is constant across all levels of an independent variable. A normal distribution refers to a symmetrical bell-shaped distribution where most of the scores cluster around the mean, and a skewed distribution indicates that one tail of the distribution is longer or fatter than the other, but does not specifically focus on variability across the distribution.

Understanding heteroscedasticity is crucial, especially in regression analysis, as it affects the efficiency of the estimates and the validity of inferential statistics. Knowing when a dataset exhibits this property can guide analysts in selecting appropriate statistical techniques and models to analyze their data.