Nominal basically refers to

categorically discrete data such as name of

your school, type of car you drive or name of a
book. This one is easy to remember
because nominal sounds like name(they
have the same Latin root).


Photo By: chillihead

Ordinal refers to quantities that have a natural
ordering. The ranking of favorite sports, the
order of people's place in a line, the order of
runners finishing a race or more often the
choice on a rating scale from 1 to 5. With
ordinal data you cannot state with certainty
whether the intervals between each value are
equal. For example, we often using rating
scales (Likert questions). On a 10 point scale,
the difference between a 9 and a 10 is not
necessarily the same difference as the
difference between a 6 and a 7. This is also an
easy one to remember, ordinal sounds like
order.


Photo By: epimetheus

Interval data is like ordinal except we can say
the intervals between each value are equally
split. The most common example is
temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. The
difference between 29 and 30 degrees is the
same magnitude as the difference between 78
and 79 (although I know I prefer the latter).
With attitudinal scales and the Likert questions
you usually see on a survey, these are rarely
interval, although many points on the scale
likely are of equal intervals.


Photo By: psd

Ratio data is interval data with a natural zero
point. For example, time is ratio since 0 time is
meaningful. Degrees Kelvin has a 0 point
(absolute 0) and the steps in both these scales
have the same degree of magnitude.

Nominal Scale Examples
diagnostic categories
sex of the participant
classification based on discrete characteristics (e.g., hair color)
group affiliation (e.g., Republican, Democrate, Boy Scout, etc.)
the town people live in
a person's name
an arbitrary identification, including identification numbers that are arbitrary
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 Scale Examples
any rank ordering
class ranks
social class categories
order of finish in a race
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 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