Psychology 230:
Multidimensional Scaling

Topics & Schedule

  1. Introduction and History:
    January 8 - 15 (1 1/2 weeks)

    2. Readings
    Young & Hamer Chapters 1 & 2 plus a chapter of your choice from Part III or another paper that uses MDS.
    Cox & Cox Chapter 6.
    Assignment
    January 15th: Each individual class member will present a verbal report on an MDS experiment (use the texts and the technical materials to find primary references).

  2. Data Theory and Experimental Design:
    January 20 - February 5th (3 weeks)

    3. Readings
    Young & Hamer Chapter 3
    Cox & Cox Chapter 1
    Assignments
    February 3rd will be devoted to a classroom exercise to design a dissimilarity-based experiment for multidimensional scaling.
    February 5th: Preliminary experimental design due.

  3. Classical MDS Models:
    February 10 - 12 (1 week)

    4. Readings
    Young & Hamer Chapter 5 (skim 4)
    Cox & Cox Chapter 2
    Assignments
    February 3rd: Rough draft of data-gathering forms due.
    February 5th: Final data-gathering forms due.

  4. Torgerson, Kruskal and de Leeuw Classical MDS Algorithms:
    February 24 - March 7 (1 week)

    5. Readings
    Schiffman, Reynolds & Young Chapter 16, pp. 358-362
    Cox & Cox (1994) Chapters 2, 3 and 10 (10.2 only).
    Assignment
    March 7th: LispStat function for Torgerson MDS

    Spring Break (March 10-14)

  5. Least Squares Monotonic Transformation:
    March 17 - 28 (2 weeks)

    6. Readings
    Cox & Cox (1994) pp 45-52.
    Assignment
    April 2nd: LispStat function for NMDS

  6. Replicated Nonmetric MDS Algorithm:
    March 31 - April 2nd (1/2 week)

    7. Schiffman, Reynolds & Young pp 55-65.
    Young & Hamer pp. 85-91
    Assignment
    April 2nd: LispStat function for NMDS completed

  7. Weighted MDS Models:
    April 4 - 9 (1 week)

    8. Readings
    Young & Hamer Chapter 6
    Assignment
    April 9th: LispStat function for RNMDS

  8. Metric & Nonmetric Weighted MDS Algorithms:
    April 11-16 (1 week)

    9. Readings
    Schiffman, Reynolds & Young Chapter 16, pp. 348-357, 371-389
    Cox & Cox (1994) Chapter 9 & 10
    Assignment
    April 18th: ViSta RNMDS Model Object

  9. Interpretation of MDS Results:
    April 18 - 25 (1 1/2 weeks)

    10. Readings
    Schiffman, S.S., Reynolds, M.L, & Young, F.W. (1981) Introduction to Multidimensional Scaling. Academic Press, New York. Chap. 12-13, pp. 253-320.
    Assignment
    April 25th: Demo of ViSta RNMDS Model Object analyzing Class Data

  10. Documenting the ViSta RNMDS Model Object:
    April 18 - May 2nd (2 weeks)

    11. Assignment
    May 2nd: Documentation for Model Object with example analysis of class data.