Critical Thinking Numbers are often assigned to data that are categorical in nature.

(a) Consider these number assignments for category items describing electronic ways of expressing personal opinions:

1 5 Twitter; 2 5 e-mail; 3 5 text message; 4 5 Facebook; 5 5 blog Are these numerical assignments at the ordinal data level or higher?

Explain.

(b) Consider these number assignments for category items describing usefulness of customer service:

1 5 not helpful; 2 5 somewhat helpful; 3 5 very helpful;

4 5 extremely helpful Are these numerical assignments at the ordinal data level? Explain. What about at the interval level or higher? Explain.