Measurement and Meaning in Biology

2011/03/01 by David Houle, Christophe Pélabon, Günter P. Wagner +3 · 376 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Mathematics · #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Artificial intelligence #Biology #Computer science #Context (archaeology) #Data science #Empirical research #Epistemology #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Inference #Level of measurement #Mathematics #Meaning (existential) #Natural (archaeology) #Physics #Plant and animal studies #Scale (ratio) #Statistics

paper · doi:10.1086/658408

published in The Quarterly Review of Biology 86(1), 3-34 (University of Chicago Press)

openalex publication_date 2011/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Measurement--the assignment of numbers to attributes of the natural world--is central to all scientific inference. Measurement theory concerns the relationship between measurements and reality; its goal is ensuring that inferences about measurements reflect the underlying reality we intend to represent. The key principle of measurement theory is that theoretical context, the rationale for collecting measurements, is essential to defining appropriate measurements and interpreting their values. Theoretical context determines the scale type of measurements and which transformations of those measurements can be made without compromising their meaningfulness. Despite this central role, measurement theory is almost unknown in biology, and its principles are frequently violated. In this review, we present the basic ideas of measurement theory and show how it applies to theoretical as well as empirical work. We then consider examples of empirical and theoretical evolutionary studies whose meaningfulness have been compromised by violations of measurement-theoretic principles. Common errors include not paying attention to theoretical context, inappropriate transformations of data, and inadequate reporting of units, effect sizes, or estimation error. The frequency of such violations reveals the importance of raising awareness of measurement theory among biologists.

Citations

• GENOTYPE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY
• Costs of Reproduction: An Evaluation of the Empirical Evidence
• The Strength of Phenotypic Selection in Natural Populations

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