Types of data.

This interactive presentation looks at different types of data and how they might be best suited to certain analysis techniques. It may to some extent seem an academic issue, however as you will hopefully see the type of data gathered dictates the type of analysis that is valid to carry out on it. To sensibly appraise a piece of research it is then important that you have some understanding of these issues, otherwise you would not be able to distinguish between a valid or invalid analysis. The buttons on the toolbar to the left are common to all the slides, the help button gives a full explanation. Other buttons on the slides will let you navigate around the main content. Some people will already be quite confident in their ability to interpret descriptive statistics used as research evidence, others less so. The interactive nature of the resource lets you learn at your own pace and check your learning.
Restart FAQs Examples Links/Reference Technical Test yourself Help Exit Data types Discrete and continuous data Paired and nonpaired data

The aim is to investigate the concept of different data types and how they might affect the analysis of data. Some of this might seem rather theoretical so don't worry if you feel your understanding remains rather superficial on this particular topic. Under the "Technical" button there are links to more active resources, these might be of interest for those who might use statistics in their own research later but not essential learning now.

Data (Different types)

Nominal Data: These are data which give classes which have no real connection with numbers and cant be ordered meaningfully. Examples: Male or female, Town of residence. Ordinal Data: These are data that can be put in an order, but dont have a numerical meaning beyond the order. So for instance, a distance of 2 between two numbers would not be meaningfully equivalent to a distance of 2 between two others. Examples: Questionnaire responses coded: 1 Strongly disagree, 2 disagree, 3 indifferent, 4 agree, 5 strongly agree. Level of pain felt in joint rated on a scale from 0 (comfortable) to 10 (extremely painful). Social class coded by number. Interval Data: These are numerical data where the distances between numbers have meaning, but the zero has no real meaning. With interval data it is not meaningful to say than one measurement is twice another, and might not still be true if the units were changed. Examples: Temperature (Centigrade), Year, adult shoe size (In all examples the zero point has been chosen conventionally, as the freezing point of water or the year of Christs birth, or to make 1 smallest size of shoes adults were expected to wear. If my shoe size is twice yours in British sizes, this will not also be true in Continental sizes. Ratio Data: These are data that are numerical data where the distances between data and the zero point have real meaning. With such data it is meaningful to say that one value is twice as much as another, and this would still be true if the units were changed. Examples: Heights, Weights, Salaries, Ages. Note that if someone is twice as tall as someone else in inches, this will still be true in centimetres. Percentage Data: Data expressed as percentages. Example: Percentage of patients on waiting list operated on within 5 months.

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Data types
More restricted in how they can be analysed
Click a link to see more detail about each type.

Nominal
Ordinal

These are data which give classes which have no real connection with numbers and cant be ordered meaningfully.

These are data which can be ordered meaningfully. They can be ranked but the distance between them has no real meaning, only their rank.
These are data which can be ordered meaningfully and the distance between them does have real meaning. However we can't say x is twice y. These are data which can be ordered meaningfully and the distance between them does have real meaning. We can also make statements like x is twice y.

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Less restricted in how they can be analysed

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Interval

Ratio

(Stevens, 1946)

Go on to Discrete and continuous data

Continuous and Discrete data

Data are said to be continuous when the measurements could have any value in a range. E.g., the height of people is continuous, a person could be1812mm tall and another could be 1811.9mm tall. You may meet someone who is 1812.197347mm tall (although I doubt we could measure a human that accurately). Any number within the range of heights is possible. A set of data is said to be discrete if the observations or measurements can only take on discrete values. E.g., data gathered by counting are discrete such as the number of wheels on a vehicle, the number children in a household. Time to complete an assignment would be continuous but the number of assignments completed would be discrete. Try to classify each before revealing the answer The heights of students in a seminar...
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Height is continuous. For example, a student could be 162.3cm tall or any number in a range, i.e. the range of human height. The number of matches in a box. The number of matches is discrete. It may be 1,2,3,4500,501 but not 2.54 or 56.79 The times taken for a person to run 100m. Time is continuous. For example, an athlete may run 100m in 10.4 seconds I may take slightly longer!
Discrete and Continuous Variables summary. A discrete variable is a variable whose possible values over the range of the data do not include all the values within that range e.g. how many children in a family. A continuous variable is a variable whose possible values include all the values within the range of the data e.g. the height of the eldest child.
Go on to Paired and non-paired data

Paired Data
Data are paired if the entries in each record are connected with each other.
Examples of Paired data: the ages and weights of a group of gymnasts the weights of a group of gymnasts before and after a training session Examples of Non-paired data : the weights of a group of gymnasts and a group of non-gymnasts the changes in weight of two groups of gymnasts given different kinds of training session

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If you are not sure whether data are paired or not, think of them in two columns, consider whether rearranging the order of one of the columns would affect the data. If it would, they are paired. Paired data often occur in before and after situations. They are also known as related samples. Non-paired data can also be referred to as independent samples. Scatterplots (also called scattergrams) are only meaningful for paired data.
More on Paired data

These data are paired, just rearranging one column would make it meaningless!

Paired Data - three examples...

A researcher wants to find out if a new type of diet reduces weight. She weighs the subjects before they start the diet then again after following it for 4 weeks. What kind of data does this yield? A researcher is interested in the effect of exercise on weight. He weighs each member of two groups of subjects, one group take regular exercise and the other don't. What kind of data does this yield?
Restart FAQs Examples Links/Reference Technical Test yourself Help Exit She has gathered paired data each person has a before and an after weight. These are not paired data, he gets two separate groups of data, one for each group.

A researcher is interested in the effect of exercise on weight. She weighs a group of 50 subjects then randomly ascribes half the subjects to a treatment group who get an exercise regime to follow and the other half who continue as normal. After one month she reweighs all the subjects again and calculates the difference in weight for every individual, she therefore ends up with one weight loss figure for each person and hopes to see more weight loss in the members of the treatment group. What kind of data does she have?
Summary

Although she has initially gathered paired data the data she is using for her analysis is not paired, she has the change in weight for people from two independent groups.

OK what next
Data might be paired or unpaired, if a client was measures three of four times this is still referred to as paired data and sometimes as repeated measures. Data might also be continuous or discrete. The level of measurement should also fall into the categories, Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio. This introduction has covered the basics on this topic. Use the buttons on the left to have a look at some examples then check your knowledge with the self test.

How do you see the world?

Click the link below to see a graphic, some individuals when stressed may believe that the graphic is in motion, some, having grappled their way through a tutorial on data types may even see three columns of paired data! Click here to find out what you see...

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OK what next
Data might be paired or unpaired, if a client was measures three of four times this is still referred to as paired data and sometimes as repeated measures. Data might also be continuous or discrete. The level of measurement should also fall into the categories, Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio. This introduction has covered the basics on this topic. Use the buttons on the left to have a look at some examples then check your knowledge with the self test.

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Examples
Example 1 do older people have a greater liking for classical music? an example of paired data.
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Example 2 are women taller than men? an example of two groups of ratio data.

Do older people have a greater liking for classical music?

A researcher asked students to score their liking of classical music 1=hate it, 10=love it. The data are paired, each person has more than one piece of data and they must be kept together to retain their value. The Scatterplot below is a sensible way to graph these data and it does show some interesting correlation. Although it can be seen that plenty of younger subject like classical music (though many don't) to the right of the graph where the older folk are, there is a dearth of low scores! Scatterplots are only useful for paired data.
Age 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 23 24 26 26 26 26 27 29 36 38 41 49 50 Score 7 2 1 2 1 4 3 3 5 2 8 3 3 6 7 1 6 3 5 3 8 2 5 6 5 8 5

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Are women taller than men?

A researcher measured the height of subjects and noted their gender (1=male, 10=female) to hopefully find out if males or females were generally taller. The data again can be stored in two columns BUT the Gender variable is categorical. This variable is used to discriminate between the genders in the analysis. The boxplot below shows the difference quite well, also the mean heights of each group might be useful. (The mean female height in the sample was 170 cm and for males was 185.33 cm.) This represents pretty good evidence that there is a difference in height depending on gender, males generally being taller but the boxplot also shows us that while males are generally taller, some females are taller than some males. (The plots overlap.)
Restart FAQs Examples Links/Reference Technical Test yourself Help Exit Gender 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 Height (cm) 193.00 185.00 181.00 184.00 180.00 189.00 167.00 159.00 184.00 165.00 174.00 172.00 177.00 166.00 169.00 167.00

Frequently Asked Questions

Q Why is the type of the data important? A For lots of reasons, imagine we want to find the average colour of car in the free multi story car park here on campus... we would count the number of red, green, blue cars etc. Would it then be sensible to calculate the mean car colour? how would you do it? You couldn't. The data are the wrong type for that statistic! The form of average that is relevant in this case is the mode rather than the mean, this gives the most frequently occurring observation (probably red but who knows, we haven't got a multi story car park! Q Can you change data from one type to another?
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A Yes in some cases, for example we could take human heights which are ratio data and use them to place people in categories, small, medium and large. This new value would at best be ordinal data. Sometimes this is a sensible analysis technique, though always wonder why it is done and who picked the size and boundaries of the categories!

Links and References

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Links to sites of possible interest.

References.

Links
Definitions, Uses, Data Types, and Levels of Measurement http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/webtexts/stat01.htm "StatPrimer" a useful in depth stats resource. http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/gerstman/StatPrimer/

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Technical what kind of data have you collected...

Remember you don't need this for the Module!

Excel is not even vaguely concerned about what you do to the data you store on it! this is to some degree an advantage in flexibility of use but does allow us to undertake less appropriate analyses. It does make distinction between text, number and date/times.

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SPSS is more concerned that you store data in a format that is relevant to it sensible analysis. The "Variable View" lets you set this if needed but usually the default automatic setting is fine. For some procedures SPSS might even ask to convert scale variables to categorical variables. The "Variable View" also lets you assign text labels to numerical categories (e.g. 1=Male, 2=Female), this makes output look much better. SPSS doesn't' quite use the variable types we have looked at here but the SPSS "scale" variable equates roughly to our Interval and Ratio types.
More important is the structure you choose for your data when coding it into SPSS. For more information on coding paired and non-paired data in SPSS click here.

Coding paired and non-paired data in SPSS

Paired
A researcher asked students to score their liking of classical music 1=hate it, 10=love it. This would be coded in 2 variables in SPSS each Classical row would be one subjects Age Music data (their age and liking Score score).
19 19 20 20 21 22 23 24 26 26 26 26 27 29 36 38 41 49 50 1 4 3 3 5 3 3 1 6 3 5 3 8 2 5 6 5 8 5

Non-paired
A researcher measured students height and noted their gender (1=male, 10=female) to hopefully find out if males or females were generally taller. The data again can be stored in two columns BUT the Gender variable is categorical. This variable is used as a discriminatory variable by SPSS. The term "grouping variable" is often Gender Height (cm) used in preference to 1.00 193.00 1.00 185.00 "discriminatory 181.00 variable" these days, 1.00 1.00 184.00 it is the variable that 1.00 180.00 lets us discriminate 1.00 189.00 between the groups 2.00 167.00 we are interested in. 2.00 159.00 In our example here 2.00 184.00 2.00 165.00 there are just 2 but 2.00 174.00 there could be more.
2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 172.00 177.00 166.00 169.00 167.00

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Data types, Nominal, Ordinal, Ratio.

Discrete and continuous data.

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Paired data.

Different types of data

It is important that you understand the difference between data types, the type of data affects how it can be reasonably analysed. So this is relevant knowledge that enables you to discern if the researcher has performed an appropriate analysis. For example the type of average we would use depends on the type of data, refer back to the data types description if you want to help you fill in the table below...
Nominal
Click or swipe the boxes to see the answer when you've had a think.

Ordinal

Interval

Ratio

What type of data have was collected in each example

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A researcher collects human body weight in kg, e.g. 67.23 kg. A researcher collects height in metres, e.g. 1.64m. A researcher collects the home town of her research subjects... Students are asked to score the taste of a new recipe of bun as; "Very good"/"Good"/"Poor"/"Very poor"

No No Yes No

No No No Yes

No No No No

Yes Yes No No

Discrete and Continuous data

Have a look at the examples below and see if you can decide whether the data are discrete or continuous refer back if you want to help you fill in the table below...

Discrete
Click or swipe the boxes to see the answer when you've had a think.

Continuous

What type of data have was collected in each example

Restart FAQs

The heights of students in a seminar.

No
The times taken for athletes to run 100m.

Yes Yes No No

Examples Links/Reference Technical Test yourself Help Exit The numbers of sprouts in 1000g bags of packed sprouts. Blood group (O, A, B, AB).

No Yes Yes

Paired data
Have a look at the examples below and see if you can decide whether the data are paired or not refer back if you want to help you fill in the table below...

Paired
Click or swipe the boxes to see the answer when you've had a think.

What type of data have was collected in each example

Not Paired

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The heights of students in a seminar.

No
The times taken for each subject to run 100m and their body mass index. The number of cigarettes smoked by a subject and their forced expiatory volume (a measure of lung function).

Yes No No

Yes Yes

Help
What do the buttons do? Downloading the presentation to view at home.
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More general help for studying

Help - What do the buttons do?

Restart - will start the presentation from the top slide again. Many slides have a "Back" or "Continue" button on them if needed, this should aid navigation, the Restart option is quite a blunt instrument. FAQs addresses Frequently Asked Questions about the topic. Examples Holds some examples of the applied method for you to try interpreting. Links links to web pages for further information. Occasionally links will be moved to new addresses, if the link you try doesn't work try copying and pasting the accompanying text into a search engine. Technical this is where you will find instructions about applying the method. This isn't essential for consumers of research but might be a useful starting point if wanting to analyse and display your own data. Test Yourself allows you to test your knowledge of the topic formatively, the results are just for you, to let you gauge your own understanding. Help this help resource. Exit allows you to exit the presentation, you can also use the "Esc" key.

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Help - Downloading the presentation to view at home.

This presentation is stored in a PowerPoint file. It can be downloaded to disk or a memory stick and viewed at home if you have the PowerPoint software installed on your computer. If you don't have the PowerPoint software installed on your computer you can download a free PowerPoint viewer that will enable you to view the presentation, however the viewer is not as flexible as the full version, branching and animation might not work properly. To download the presentation just click on the link with the other mouse button then choose the "Save Target As" option to save a copy to your disk or memory stick. If your system doesn't have PowerPoint then you can download the limited PowerPoint viewer from Microsoft free of charge, it will enable you to view (but not create or edit) PowerPoint presentations. Try the link below:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/officeupdate/CD010798701033.aspx

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If the link has changed simply type the words " PowerPoint viewer" into Google and follow the links to Microsoft's Office download site. The file is an executable program file that should download and saved to disk. If you are not on the Internet at home you can put it and the PowerPoint presentation files on a memory stick from a SHU PC to install and use at home. Full instructions for installing the viewer are on the Microsoft site.

Help - More general help for studying

The first port of call for help in any module is the staff who teach it, do contact staff teaching on the module if you are unsure about elements of it.
Sheffield Hallam University has a range of services, both online and face to face to help enable students to get the best out of their courses. The individual links may change, so I haven't put the full links here, they are accessible via the student portal (http://my.shu.ac.uk/) my intention here is to make sure you know they exist. If you can't find them then a member of the Learning Centre staff will be happy to help, also the Student Services Centre is a good place to enquire for more general help and advice on study related issues.

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Useful resources:
Key Skills Online: http://keyskills.shu.ac.uk/

There are Learning & IT Services Information and Support Desks on each campus where you can get help with your borrowing, information and IT needs. http://students.shu.ac.uk/lits/help/index.html
SHU also runs "Maths Help" sessions as part of the Education Guidance/Study Support service within the Student Services Centre.

Are you sure you want to quit?

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Yes

No

References

Stevens, S.S. (1946). On the theory of scales of measurement. Science, 103, 677-680

Internet. (2001). [online]. In: The concise Oxford dictionary. (2001). 10th ed., edited by Judy Pearsall. Oxford University Press. From Oxford Reference Online. Last accessed on 7 July 2004 at: http://www.oxfordreference.com/

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