"In rating ease of description as very important, we are essentially asserting a belief in quantitative knowledge--a belief that most of the key questions in our world sooner or later demand answers to 'by how much?' rather than merely to 'in which direction?'
"Consistent with this view, we believe, is a clear demand that pictures based on exploration of data should force their messages upon us. Pictures that emphasize what we already know - 'security blankets' to reassure us - are frequently not worth the space they take. Pictures that have to be gone over with a reading glass to see the main point are wasteful of time and inadequate of effect. The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see."
John W. Tukey. Exploratory Data Analysis. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1977, p.vi.
"The construction of a variable thus requires
(i) appreciating the possibility of summarizing some set of phenomena into a construct that can be thought of in terms of magnitudes,
(ii) eliciting through an observation framework from within a specified frame of reference the relevant observations with adequate consistency, and
(iii) the choice and application of a mathematical model to transform the observations into measurements."
Andrich, D. Rasch Models for Measurement. Sage University papers, #68. page 16.
Notes & Quotes Rasch Measurement Transactions, 1991, 5:2 p. 156
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