GGR276H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Level Of Measurement, Continuous Or Discrete Variable, Dendrogram
2.1-2.4
Primary data are acquired directly from the original source.
Secondary (or archival) data are generally collected by some organization or
government agency and can be used by the geographer.
Some studies are considered explicitly spatial because the locations or placement
of the observations or units of data are themselves directly analyzed.
Other geographic studies are implicitly spatial.
Another important dimension of geographic research is the contrast between
individual-level and spatially aggregated data sets.
This invalid transfer of conclusions from spatially aggregated analysis to smaller
areas or to the individual level is known as the ecological fallacy.
A discrete variable has some restriction placed on the values the variable can
assume.
A continuous variable has an infinitely large number of possible values among
some interval of a real number line.
If a variable is quantitative, the observations or responses are expressed
numerically - that is, units of data are assigned numerical values.
On the other hand, if a variable is qualitative, each observation or response is
assigned to one of two or more categories.
In nominal scale classification of variables, each category is given some name or
title, but no assumptions are made about any relationships between categories-only
that they are different.
In fact, the only necessary conditions for a proper nominal scale classification of
variables are that the categories are exhaustive (every value or unit of data can be
assigned to a category) and mutually exclusive (it is not possible to assign a value
to more than one category because the categories do not overlap).
The next higher level of measurement involves placement of values in rank order to
create an ordinal scale variable.
When each value or unit of data is given a particular position in a rank order
sequence, the variable is considered strongly-ordered.
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Document Summary
Primary data are acquired directly from the original source. Secondary (or archival) data are generally collected by some organization or government agency and can be used by the geographer. Some studies are considered explicitly spatial because the locations or placement of the observations or units of data are themselves directly analyzed. Another important dimension of geographic research is the contrast between individual-level and spatially aggregated data sets. This invalid transfer of conclusions from spatially aggregated analysis to smaller areas or to the individual level is known as the ecological fallacy. A discrete variable has some restriction placed on the values the variable can assume. A continuous variable has an infinitely large number of possible values among some interval of a real number line. If a variable is quantitative, the observations or responses are expressed numerically - that is, units of data are assigned numerical values.
