14 – Defining Variables and Operationalization

Variable type	Variable Name	Phenomenon Characteristic, Behaviour, Opinion, Knowledge Level	Possible Questions	Answer type Mutually Exclusive, Multiple, Open-ended	Possible Observations	Interpretation
Dependent	Landmark Relevance	Opinion	Is this landmark name relevant to Modern-Day Montreal?	Mutually Exclusive, Nominal	Yes, No, Maybe/I don’t know/Both	It’s relevant It’s not relevant Undecided
Independent 1	Merit	Opinion	What did this person do to deserve such an honor?	Open-ended	A lot, Some, Nothing, Not Sure / Don’t know	He deserves it Does not deserve it Undecided
Independent 2	Language Politics	Characteristic	On which side of the language barrier is this person? Is the landmark in the right neighborhood?	Mutually Exclusive Mutually Exclusive	French English Both Neither Yes No Maybe/I don’t know	Franco in East = relevant politics Anglo in West = relevant politics Franco in West = interesting case Anglo in East = interesting case
Independent 3	Historical Knowledge	Level of knowledge	Can you identify the picture of XYZ? History quiz questions.	Mutually Exclusive Mutually Exclusive	Identifies / Cannot ID Answer correctly Answer incorrectly	Knowledge HIGH Knowledge MEDIUM Knowledge LOW
Control 1	Age	Characteristic	How old are you?	Mutually Exclusive	16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25+	Young (<18), Average (18), Old (>18)
Control 2	Mother Tongue	Characteristic	What is your Mother Tongue?	Mutually Exclusive	French English Other	French English Other
Control 3	Gender