Attempts Score/5 17. Measuring central tendency Three primary statistics are used to describe a variable's central tendency, defined as the average behavior of the variable. You can use these statistics, known as the mean, the median, and the mode, to draw meaningful conclusions about a variable's past behavior and to predict its future behavior. An investor is considering a stock with the following returns over the past 12 years: Year Annual Return 1 B 896 12 14 8 6 9 10 4 11 6 12 7