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A New Solution to the Additive Constant Problem in Metric Multidimensional Scaling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Lee G. Cooper*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

A new solution to the additive constant problem in metric multidimensional scaling is developed. This solution determines, for a given dimensionality, the additive constant and the resulting stimulus projections on the dimensions of a Euclidean space which minimize the sum of squares of discrepancies between the formal model for metric multidimensional scaling and the original data. A modification of Fletcher-Powell style functional iteration is used to compute solutions. A scale free index of the goodness of fit is developed to aid in selecting solutions of adequate dimensionality from multiple candidates.

Type
Original Paper
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

This research is based in part on the author’s Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Computer time was provided by the Campus Computing Network of the University of California, Los Angeles.

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