What is defined as the difference between the lowest and highest score in a distribution?

The term that describes the difference between the lowest and highest score in a distribution is the range. The range provides a simple measure of how spread out the values in a dataset are. It is calculated by subtracting the minimum value from the maximum value, thereby giving a clear indication of the full extent of the data. This measure is particularly useful for quickly obtaining a sense of the variability within a set of numbers without considering the frequency or distribution of those numbers.

In contrast, the standard deviation measures the average distance of each data point from the mean, indicating how clustered or spread out the data values are around the average. Variance, on the other hand, is the square of the standard deviation and reflects the degree to which each number varies from the mean squared. The mean is simply the average of all data points, providing a measure of central tendency rather than the extent of spread in the data. Thus, the range is specifically focused on the difference between the extreme values, making it the correct answer.