This outstanding presentation of the fundamentals of multidimensional scaling illustrates the applicability of MDS to a wide variety of disciplines. The first two sections provide ground work in the history and theory of MDS. The final section applies MDS techniques to such diverse fields as physics, marketing, and political science.

This outstanding presentation of the fundamentals of multidimensional scaling illustrates the applicability of MDS to a wide variety of disciplines. The first two sections provide ground work in the history and theory of MDS. The final section applies MDS techniques to such diverse fields as physics, marketing, and political science.

This introductory volume includes worked examples from a variety of data sets about the most frequently used models and computer programs for MDS, as well as techniques for collecting data and assessing MDS results. It covers the design, execution, and analysis of multidimensional scaling experiments and includes detailed descriptions and examples of six major MDS computer programs: MINISSA, POLYCON, KYST, INDSCAL/SINDSCAL, ALSCAL and MULTISCALE. These six approaches are sufficiently fundamental that continuing developments in the field will build on the principles presented in this volume.