This article proposes a Boolean approach to representing and analyzing interobserver agreement in dichotomous coding. Building on the notion that observations are samples of a universe of observations, it submits that coding can be viewed as a process in which observers sample pieces of evidence on constructs. It distinguishes between formal and functional interobserver agreement based on whether events coded by observers are, respectively, the same or different but equivalent samples of the same classes of events. Formal and functional agreement are defined as Boolean functions. The article reports on an investigation in which a Boolean approach was used to examine agreement in the coding of teacher–student social interactions. Agreement maps (devices that represent the relative frequencies of coding cases—different combinations of 1s and 0s in the observers’ coding) allowed detail examination of how interobserver agreement was shaped by the nature of the events coded and the characteristics of the individuals whose behaviors were coded. Results provide empirical evidence of formal and functional agreement as distinguishable forms of interobserver agreement. Results also show that Boolean coding analysis allows detection of ways in which coding procedures confound absence of evidence with evidence of absence. Practical and methodological implications are discussed.

中文翻译：

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观察者间协议的布尔分析：复杂编码努力中的形式和功能证据采样

本文提出了一种布尔方法来表示和分析二分法编码中的观察者间一致性。基于观察是观察范围的样本的概念，它提出编码可以被视为观察者对结构的证据进行采样的过程。它根据观察者编码的事件分别是同一类事件的相同或不同但等效的样本来区分正式和功能性观察者间协议。形式和功能协议被定义为布尔函数。这篇文章报告了一项调查，其中使用布尔方法来检查师生社交互动编码的一致性。一致性图（表示编码案例的相对频率的设备——观察者编码中 1 和 0 的不同组合）允许详细检查观察者间一致性是如何通过编码事件的性质和行为受到影响的个体的特征形成的。编码。结果提供了正式和功能协议作为观察者间协议的可区分形式的经验证据。结果还表明，布尔编码分析允许检测编码程序混淆证据缺失与证据缺失的方式。讨论了实际和方法论的影响。结果提供了正式和功能协议作为观察者间协议的可区分形式的经验证据。结果还表明，布尔编码分析允许检测编码程序混淆证据缺失与证据缺失的方式。讨论了实际和方法论的影响。结果提供了正式和功能协议作为观察者间协议的可区分形式的经验证据。结果还表明，布尔编码分析允许检测编码程序混淆证据缺失与证据缺失的方式。讨论了实际和方法论的影响。