1. NOIR Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio
Levels of Data
NOIR
Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio

2. Task 1
Task 1: As a class you will need to organise yourself into two groups: tall people and short people. Then record the number of people in each group.
No. of students
Tall height
Average height

3. Nominal Data
This is an example of nominal data. Participants are categorised into groups (tall vs. short).
This is the lowest level of data psychologists use.
Question: What do you think the problem with this level of data is?

4. Task 2
Task 2: As a class, arrange yourself in height order from tallest to shortest (for the tallest 10 people). Then call the tallest person rank 1 down to the shortest person who will be rank 10.
Rank
Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5. Ordinal (Rank) Data
This is an example of ordinal data. The participants are ranked in order from tallest to smallest.
This data is more useful than nominal, because we now know the relative positions of our 10 participants.
Question: What do you think the problem with this level of data is?

6. Task 3
Task 3: As a class, using the remaining people (who weren’t the ‘tallest’ 10) measure their height in CM and place them in the table below (from tallest to smallest). Also, make a note of their shoe size.
Height (CM)
Name
Shoe Size

7. Interval vs. Ratio Data
This is interval data because we can measure and compare the exact height of our participants and examine the interval between each person. For example, 100cm is half as tall as 200cm.
Height (CM)
Name
Shoe Size
Question: What do you think that this is the ‘strongest’ levels of measurement