Data

Question 1

What is nominal level data?

Answer 1

This is the lowest level of data. It is a ‘headcount’ of the number of participants who do one thing as opposed to another.

Question 2

Example of nominal level data

Answer 2

Headcount of the number of ales successfully completing a crossword in 15 minutes as opposed to the number of females successfully completing a crossword in 15 minutes

Question 3

What is ordinal level data?

Answer 3

This is the medium level of data. Analysis is made of individual scores achieved by participants, but only in relation to each other. No account is taken of how much further the highest is from second highest, etc., so the measures used may not be carefully calibrated.

Question 4

Example of ordinal level data

Answer 4

In a measure of cognitive ability, participants are given a crossword to complete. At the end of 15 minutes, a note is made of how many correct answers each participant has entered to the crossword in that time. These are places in rank order from those getting the highest number of correct answers down to those getting the fewest.

Question 5

What is interval ratio level data?

Answer 5

This is the highest level of data. Analysis is made of the scores achieved by individual participants. It involves the use of carefully calibrated instruments of measurement. The sizes of the gaps between (say) the highest score, second highest score, third highest score, etc., are taken into account of.

Question 6

Example of interval ratio level data

Answer 6

In a measure of cognitive ability, participants are given a crossword to complete. For each participant, the time is recorded (in minutes and seconds) for how long it takes them to complete the crossword, and these times are then analysed.

Question 7

What is quantitative data?

Answer 7

This is all about quantities of things. They are numbers, raw scores, percentages, means etc. They are measurements of things, telling us how much of something there is.

Question 8

Example of quantitative data

Answer 8

Anything numerical

Question 9

What is qualitative data?

Answer 9

This is all about qualities of things. They are descriptions, words, meanings, pictures, etc. It is data that cannot readily be counted. Qualitative data can be summarised and may be converted to quantitative data and then counted.

Question 10

Example of qualitative data

Answer 10

Words

Question 11

What is good about quantitative data?

Answer 11

• Easy to compare
• No researcher bias
• Easy to summarise
• Easy to establish reliability of results

Question 12

What is bad about quantitative data?

Answer 12

• Low ecological validity
• Doesn’t tell us why

Question 13

What is good about qualitative data?

Answer 13

• More detail about participant experience
• Richer data to improve validity of results

Question 14

What is bad about qualitative data?

Answer 14

• Harder to compare participants
• Cannot present in a graph
• Harder to analyse

Question 15

What is primary data?

Answer 15

In experiments we are measuring the ability of each participant within each condition of the experimental task. As we are collecting the data directly, this is known as primary data.

Question 16

Example of primary data

Answer 16

Number of words recalled from a list of 20, each participant’s time (in seconds) to find 15 words in a word search

Question 17

What is secondary data?

Answer 17

This can be used in other research methods, such as correlation, to analyse information which already exists.

Question 18

Example of secondary data

Answer 18

Crime statistics which the police are already in possession of, number of appointments missed in the last month at a local GP surgery, number of parking tickets issued in a town centre car park in the last week.