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A Generalized Simplex for Factor Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Louis Guttman*
Affiliation:
The Israel Institute of Applied Social Research, Jerusalem, Israel

Abstract

By a simplex is meant a set of statistical variables whose interrleations reveal a simple order pattern. For the case of quantitative variables, an order model was analyzed previously which allowed only for positive correlations among the variables and a limited type of gradient among the correlation coefficients. The present paper analyzes a more general model and shows how it is more appropriate to empirical data. Among the novel features emerging from the analysis are: (a) the “factoring” implied of the correlation matrix; (b) the use of a non-Euclidean distance function; and (c) the possible underlying psychological theories.

Type
Original Paper
Copyright
Copyright © 1955 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

Read at the International Congress of Psychology, Montreal, June 7–12, 1954. This research was facilitated in part by an uncommitted grant-in-aid to the writer from the Behavioral Sciences Division of the Ford Foundation.

References

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