Open AccessRECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FACTOR ANALYSIS OF CATEGORICAL VARIABLES
Author(s) -
Mislevy Robert J.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
ets research report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.235
H-Index - 5
ISSN - 2330-8516
DOI - 10.1002/j.2330-8516.1985.tb00109.x
Subject(s) - categorical variable , econometrics , exploratory factor analysis , test (biology) , factor (programming language) , factor analysis , statistics , exploratory data analysis , polychoric correlation , computer science , mathematics , structural equation modeling , correlation , paleontology , geometry , biology , programming language
Despite known shortcomings of the procedure, exploratory factor analysis of dichotomous test items has been limited, until recently, to unweighted analyses of matrices of tetrachoric correlations. Superior methods have begun to appear in the literature, in professional symposia, and in computer programs. This paper places these developments in a unified framework, from a review of the classical common factor model for measured variables through generalized least squares and marginal maximum likelihod solutions for dichotomous data. Further extensions of the model are also reported as work in progress.