What's the Difference Between Analytic and Information Gathering Questions?
Analytic questions use ordinal scales to categorize responses for ranked analysis for evaluating responses on a scale, while information gathering questions use nominal scales to categorize responses without ranking for statistical evaluation.
In simple terms, the difference is analysis versus information gathering.
Analytic questions measure participant responses by using an ordinal Likert response where each response is assigned a value. Information Gathering questions utilize a nominal response where each response has no rank or order between them, in other words, one response is no better than another.
While nominal and ordinal variables are both categorical and represent groupings of some kind; Nominal data differs from ordinal data because it cannot be ranked in an order or truly assigned a value.
With ordinal responses‚ for example, the frequency scale shown below‚ there is a natural order to the values, and therefore a numerical value can be assigned to each of these five options. Example of ordinal responses:
- Never = 1
- Rarely = 2
- Sometimes = 3
- Often = 4
- Always = 5
With nominal responses (nominal meaning "in name") the data can only be labeled and does not have a rank order like ordinal responses do; Therefore, nominal data cannot be ordered in a meaningful way or have mathematical operations performed on them. Examples of nominal responses:
- Film genre: biography, comedy, documentary, drama, horror, etc.
- Fruit preference: apple, banana, orange, mango, peach, etc.
- Transportation preference: bicycle, bus, car, train, tram, walking, etc.
When questions collect nominal data, they are typically trying to determine the answer‚ "Which do you prefer?" For example, apples versus oranges. There is no difference between the two regarding a numeric value because a numeric value cannot be assigned to a preference. These types of questions are only counting the responses to determine the ratio of people who prefer one thing over another. For example: 45% apples to 55% oranges.
On the flip side, when a question asks, "On a scale of 1 to 5 how much do you like apples?" followed by, "On a scale of 1 to 5 how much do you like oranges?" A calculation can be made using the numerical values chosen by the survey participant.
A basic use case for each question type can be described as:
- Information Gathering: Used to capture a participants preference of the options provided.
- Analytic Questions: Used to evaluate or estimate the nature, quality, or ability of someone or something.
In summary, the difference between the two is that analytic questions assign a value to the participant responses so that you have scores to evaluate when all the responses are in. These scores can be graphed, filtered, and compared and you can make educated decisions on the results thanks to these scores and comparisons. Whereas information gathering questions result in a statistical percentage so you can determine the groups overall preference.
Ultimately the choice is yours and in using Metolius you can have both ordinal and nominal questions in the same survey.