ABSTRACT
As has already been explained, research data can be divided into two types: qualitative
and quantitative. In any quantitative research, numbers will be assigned to variables-but
numbers can carry differing amounts of information. Assigning numbers may involve:
• simply counting (e.g. how many participants fall into a certain category), or • measuring a variable (e.g. how many seconds people take to complete a task)
In other words numbers can represent different levels of detail in different circumstances.
This difference in the levels of information that can be carried by numbers is referred to
