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Mail Questionnaire - Questionnaire administered by mail to designated respondents with an accompanying cover letter to be returned by mail by the subject to the research organization.

Mall Intercept - A method of data collection in which interviewers in a shopping mall stop a sample of those passing by to ask them if they would be willing to participate in a research study.

Mann-Whitney U-statistic - Test equivalent to Wilcoxon rank sum test used for comparing two populations based on independent random samples.

Marketing Research - Function linking the consumer to the marketer through information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process.

Maturation - Changes in subjects that take place during the experiment that are not related to the experiment but may affect their response to the experimental factor.

Mean - Commonly known as the arithmetic average. It is computed by adding all the scores in a distribution and dividing by the total number of scores. It can also be thought of as the amount each individual would get if the total were divided equally among all individuals in the distribution.

Measurement Scales - There are four types: nominal scales, ordinal scales, interval scales, and ratio scales. These scales are the levels at which elements can be measured.

Measures of Central Tendency - Identify what is seen as a middle point of a data set. The goal is to find a single value that provides a reasonably accurate description of the entire group of scores. There are three measures of central tendency: mode, median, and mean.

Median - The middle number when the measurements in a data set are arranged in ascending or descending order. It is less sensitive than mean to extreme scores because it doesn't respond to the value of the scores, only to their location in a distribution.
Method Variance - The variation in scores attributable to the method of data collection.

Middle Quartile - The median of a data set.

Mode - The value in a distribution that occurs most frequently. It is the only measure of central tendency that can be used for a nominal level value. Mode has three specific limitations: a given data set may not have a mode, a data set may have more than one mode, and mode is not the most representative value of a distribution, as it emphasizes data concentration.

Moderator - The person asking the questions and directing the discussion in a focus group.

Multichotomous Question - Fixed-alternative question in which respondents are asked to choose the alternative that most closely corresponds to their position on the subject.

Multidimensional Scaling - Approach to measurement in which people's perceptions of the similarity of objects and their preferences among the objects are measured, and these relationships are plotted in a multidimensional space.

Multivariate - Problem of analysis in which there are two or more measures of each of n sample objects, and the variables are to be analyzed simultaneously.

Mystery shoppers - Researchers posing as customers to observe the quality of service offered by retailers.