Levels of measurement

for the variable

(N)ominal
(O)rdinal
(I)nterval
(R)atio

Categorical (Nominal)
The nominal type, sometimes also called
thequalitativetype, differentiates between
items or subjects based only on their names
and/or (meta-)categories and other qualitative
classifications they belong to.

Nominal Scale Examples

diagnostic categories
sex of the participant (gender)
classification based on discrete characteristics (e.g., hair
color)
group affiliation (e.g., Republican, Democrate, Boy Scout ,
nationality, ethnicity, language, genre, style, biological
species, visual pattern, etc.)
the town people live in
a person's name
menu items selected
any yes/no distinctions
most forms of classification (species of animals or type of
tree)
location of damage in the brain

Ordinal Variable
The ordinal type allows forrank order(1st,
2nd, 3rd, etc) by which data can be sorted,
but still does not allow for relativedegree of
differencebetween them.

Ordinal Scale Examples

any rank ordering

class ranks
social class categories
order of finish in a race
data with dichotomous (or dichotomized) values
such as 'sick' vs. 'healthy' when measuring
health, 'guilty' vs. 'innocent' when making
judgments in courts, 'wrong/false' vs. 'right/true'
when measuringtruth value,
non-dichotomousdata consisting of a spectrum
of values, such as 'completely agree', 'mostly
agree', 'mostly disagree', 'completely disagree'
when measuringopinion

Interval variable

An interval variable is similar to an ordinal

variable, except that the intervals between
the values of the interval variable are
equally spaced. Intervaldata is like ordinal
except we can say the intervals between
each value are equally split.

Example
is
Fahrenheit.

temperature

in

degrees

Interval Scale Examples

scores on scales that are standardized (i.e., with an arbitrary

mean and standard deviation, usually designed to always give a
positive
score)

scores on scales that are known to not have a true zero (e.g.,
most temperature scales except for the Kelvin Scale)

scores on measures where it is not clear that zero means none of

the
trait
(e.g.,
a
math
test)

scores on most personality scales based on counting the number

of endorsed items

Ratio scale

Ratio means, like Interval, that there is a

measurement for the ranking, but there is
also a true zero. A true zero means that
there is lack of the quality being measured.
Some examples are income, where the
difference between $10,000 and $11,000 is
known and zero means complete lack of
income.

Ratio Scale Examples

time to complete a task

number of responses given in a specified
time period
weight of an object
size of an object
number of objects detected
number of errors made in a specified time
period
proportion of responses in a specified
category

Exercises
Listed below are a number of exercises
designed to familiarize students with the
classification of measures using Stevens'
classification system. For each of the
measures listed, determine what scale of
measurement most closely approximates the
measure as described.

Question 1
1) The number of questions asked by a
customer during a simulated encounter
with a salesperson?

Answer for Question 1

Ratio

Question 2

2) The religious group that one

affiliates with?

Answer for Question 2

nominal

Question 3

3) The time it takes to

complete a checking task?

Answer for Question 3

Ratio

Question 4

4) The score on a 35-item scale

of ambivalence?

Answer for Question 4

interval

Question 5

5) The rank of a person's salary

within the company?

Answer for Question 5

ordinal

Question 6

6) rank order based on IQ score in

the sample

Answer for Question 6

ratio

Question 7

7) the square footage of each participant's

house or apartment?

Answer for Question 7

ratio

Question 8

8) The size of the cerebellum expressed as

a volume

Answer for Question 8

Ratio

Question 9

9) the number of frustrated comments made

during a laboratory negotiation tas?

Answer for Question 9

Ratio

Question 10

10) The time it takes for a couple to resolve

a custody issue during court ordered
mediation

Answer for Question 10

Ratio

Question 11

11)Score on the Beck Depression Inventory

(a pencil and paper depression scale)

Answer for Question 11

Interval

Question 12

12) Ratings of anger shown by those

involved in courtroom testimony

Answer for Question 12

Interval
or Ordinal

Question 13

13) The number of pound lost during a sixweek diet?

Answer for Question 13

Ratio

Question 14

14) the proportion of weight lost during a sixweek diet?

Answer for Question 14

Ratio

Question 15

15) The heart rate of the participant?

Answer for Question 15

Ratio

Question 16

The percent shift in heart rate over baseline

during an emotionally demanding task?

Answer for Question 16

Ratio

Question 17

The percent of errors made on a

classification task

Answer for Question 17

Ratio

Question 18

The number of false alarm responses in a

monitoring task?

Answer for Question 18

Ratio

Question 19

The types of gramatical errors made in a writing

sample

Answer for Question 19

nominal

Question 20

one's ice cream preference?

Answer for Question 20

nominal

Question 21

how quickly a person gives up on an

impossible task that looks like it should be
possible

Answer for Question 21

Ratio

Question 22

a student's SAT score

Answer for Question 22

interval

Question 23

the percentile rank from an achievement

test?

Answer for Question 23

ordinal

Question 24

the type of categorization errors in a sorting

task?

Answer for Question 24

nominal

Question 25

the pattern of scores on the MMPI personality

inventory

Answer for Question 25

nominal

Question 26
the age at which one went on his or her first
date

Answer for Question 26

Ratio

Question 27
the number of children in your family

Answer for Question 27

Ratio

Question 28
the score on an anxiety sensitivity scale

Answer for Question 28

Ratio

Question 29
whether one has a pet

Answer for Question 29

Ratio

Question 30
the teacher's rankings of cooperativeness in
the classroom

Answer for Question 30

Ratio