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A Graph Theoretic Approach to Similarity Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Frank Harary
Frank Harary*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Summary

A similarity relation is reflexive and symmetric. A graph may be regarded as a geometric representation of an irreflexive symmetric relation; an r-graph then coincides with a similarity relation. For the realization of psychophysical phenomena, the points of a graph stand for the stimuli and a line for indistinguishability of a stimulus pair. Not all graphs, however, are likely to arise as similarity relations in a real situation. A special class of graphs, called interval graphs, does have this realistic property. These graphs are described and characterized.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 1964 , pp. 143 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © 1964 Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

The preparation of this article was supported by Grant NSF-G-17771 from the National Science Foundation.

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