The Visual Analogue Scale for Rating, Ranking and Paired-Comparison (VAS-RRP): A new technique for psychological measurement

• Published in: Behavior research methods Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 1694 - 1715
• Main Authors: Sung, Yao-Ting, Wu, Jeng-Shin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.08.2018
• Subjects: Adult; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Matched-Pair Analysis; Pain Measurement - methods; Psychology; Psychometrics - instrumentation; Reproducibility of Results; Visual Analog Scale; CTCU model; Likert-type scale; VAS-RRP; Ranking; Paired comparison; Multi-item VAS
• ISSN: 1554-3528; 1554-351X; 1554-3528
• DOI: 10.3758/s13428-018-1041-8

Traditionally, the visual analogue scale (VAS) has been proposed to overcome the limitations of ordinal measures from Likert-type scales. However, the function of VASs to overcome the limitations of response styles to Likert-type scales has not yet been addressed. Previous research using ranking and paired comparisons to compensate for the response styles of Likert-type scales has suffered from limitations, such as that the total score of ipsative measures is a constant that cannot be analyzed by means of many common statistical techniques. In this study we propose a new scale, called the Visual Analogue Scale for Rating, Ranking, and Paired-Comparison (VAS-RRP), which can be used to collect rating, ranking, and paired-comparison data simultaneously, while avoiding the limitations of each of these data collection methods. The characteristics, use, and analytic method of VAS-RRPs, as well as how they overcome the disadvantages of Likert-type scales, ranking, and VASs, are discussed. On the basis of analyses of simulated and empirical data, this study showed that VAS-RRPs improved reliability, response style bias, and parameter recovery. Finally, we have also designed a VAS-RRP Generator for researchers’ construction and administration of their own VAS-RRPs.