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Configural Frequency Analysis (CFA) Revisited — a New Look at an Old Approach
Author(s) -
Kieser Meinhard,
Victor Norbert
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
biometrical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.108
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-4036
pISSN - 0323-3847
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-4036(199912)41:8<967::aid-bimj967>3.0.co;2-l
Subject(s) - contingency table , identification (biology) , contingency , computer science , econometrics , type i and type ii errors , type (biology) , mathematics , statistics , data mining , ecology , linguistics , botany , philosophy , biology
Configural frequency analysis (CFA) is a widely used method for the identification of types and syndromes in contingency tables. However, the type model of CFA shows some major deficiencies. In this paper, we propose an alternative modeling of types eliminating the shortcomings of CFA. Basically, a type is modeled as a combination of traits or symptoms that deviates from the pattern of association holding true for the complementary configurations of the contingency table. The new approach is formulated in terms of a log‐linear model. It is shown that parameter estimation can be performed with methods known from the analysis of incomplete contingency tables. Test procedures for confirmatory analysis and methods for exploratory search for type configurations are developed. We illustrate the methodology with two practical examples.