An empirical basis for the statement that measurement scale properties (and meaning) are irrelevant in statistical analyses

Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate the notion that the relationship between a number and its referent determines the type of statistical analysis required (the measurement-statistics issue). A number of transformations of original data were performed in which the meaningfulness of this relationship was modified. No change in statistical analyses resulted, even when meaningfulness was at zero, or near zero, levels with random transformations. © 1986, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.