A globally optimal solution is presented for a class of functions composed of a linear regression function and a penalty function for the sums of squared regression weights. A completing-the-squares approach is used, rather than calculus, because it yields global minimality easily in two of three cases examined. (SLD)

A method of testing semantic differential scales for bipolarity is developed using a new conception of bipolarity that does not require unidimensionality. Assessment of Fielder's Least Preferred Coworker instrument with 63 college student subjects using multidimensional scaling revealed its significant departures from bipolarity. (SLD)

A flexible data analysis approach is proposed that combines the psychometric procedures seriation and multidimensional scaling. The method, which is particularly appropriate for analysis of proximities containing temporal information, is illustrated using a matrix of cocitations in publications by 18 presidents of the Psychometric Society.…

Presents an approach to multidimensional unfolding that reduces the occurrence of degenerate solutions and conducts a Monte Carlo study to demonstrate the superiority of the new method to the ALSCAL and KYST nonmetric procedures for student preference data. (SLD)

Introduces a new approach for partitioning test items into dimensionally distinct item clusters. The core of this approach is a new item-pair conditional-covariance-based proximity measure that can be used with hierarchical cluster analysis. The procedure can correctly classify, on average, over 90% of the items for correlations as high as 0.9.…

This article explores methodological issues in sonification and sound design arising from the design of helicopter monitoring sounds. Six monitoring sounds (each with 5 levels) were tested for similarity and meaning with 3 different techniques: hierarchical cluster analysis, linkage analysis, and multidimensional scaling. In Experiment 1,…

This study explores parental ethnotheories of children's temperament through mothers' responses to McDevitt and Carey's Behavioral Style Questionnaire (1978) for 299 children aged 3 to 8 years and interviews with their parents, in Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. We first established a standardized,…

Although the evidence base for the effectiveness of residential treatment is still very limited, a review of the literature reveals family-centered residential care as an emerging best practice. Synthesizing knowledge from research, families, youth, professionals, as well as values put forth in the standards by accrediting organizations, this…

Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were compared across groups of college women from China (n = 109), South Korea (n = 137), and the United States (n = 102). Based on cultural differences in the amount of exposure to Western appearance standards, particularly the thin-body ideal, sociocultural theory (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, &…

Background: Clinical experience has proven thus far that a monodisciplinary treatment approach to behavioural and psychiatric problems in persons with intellectual disability (ID), such as psychotropic medication or behaviour modification programmes, has yielded limited success. It is clear that the complexity of behavioural and psychiatric…

The present study investigated the perception and production of English /w/ and /v/ by native speakers of Sinhala, German, and Dutch, with the aim of examining how their native language phonetic processing affected the acquisition of these phonemes. Subjects performed a battery of tests that assessed their identification accuracy for natural…

Represents an attempt to jointly scale both political issues and political candidates in the same space, using Tucker's (1972) three-mode mutidimensional scaling model. (Author/RC)

Using a model for individual differences in multidimensional scaling, 16 concepts dealing with developmental psychology were scaled before and after a course. The criterion measure used was the instructor's position in the subject space. Implications of this methodology for educational evaluation are discussed. (Author/SE)

Using Goodman's (1975) notion of quasi-independence as a method of obtaining goodness of fit measures for non-scalable types in a scalogram analysis, archival data sets were examined using available Guttman scaling techniques, recent developments in latent structure analysis, and multidimensional scaling procedures. The Stouffer-Toby (1951) data…