Premium
Independent component analysis as a rotation method: A very different solution to Thurstone's box problem
Author(s) -
Jennrich Robert I.,
Trendafilov Nickolay T.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
british journal of mathematical and statistical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.157
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2044-8317
pISSN - 0007-1102
DOI - 10.1348/000711005x64105
Subject(s) - thurstone scale , principal component analysis , rotation (mathematics) , component (thermodynamics) , mathematics , independence (probability theory) , exploratory factor analysis , simplicity , simple (philosophy) , independent component analysis , varimax rotation , component analysis , perspective (graphical) , mathematical optimization , statistics , computer science , artificial intelligence , geometry , psychometrics , cronbach's alpha , philosophy , physics , epistemology , thermodynamics
In this paper we consider the well‐known Thurstone box problem in exploratory factor analysis. Initial loadings and components are extracted using principal component analysis. Rotating the components towards independence rather than rotating the loadings towards simplicity allows one to accurately recover the dimensions of each box and also produce simple loadings. It is shown how this may be done using an appropriate rotation criterion and a general rotation algorithm. Methods from independent component analysis are used, and this paper may be viewed as an introduction to independent component analysis from the perspective of factor analysis.