On 6 May 93 ltorre at eis.calstate.edu asked:
>Can someone out there help me distinguish between the scientific terms:
> -Accuracy
> -Reliability
> -Validity
"Accuracy" is not a technical measurement term which, to my knowledge, has a
meaning outside its common one. "Reliability" means the extent to which an
instrument reproduces results given the same analysand. In other words, if
you and I (or Machine A and Machine B) rate someone (or some thing) on a
characteristic and we get identical or closely correlated results, the tool
we used to perform the rating has a high reliability. "Validity" is a related
concept which refers to the extent to which an instrument measures what it is
intended to measure. If I stick a thermometer in someone's mouth, I will get
a temperature, not a blood pressure; the thermometer is a valid measure of
temperature and an invalid measure of blood pressure.
Jane Harper
Doctoral Student, Neuroscience/Nursing
University of California at San Francisco
jharper at itsa.ucsf.edu
