A number of psychometricians have suggested that parallel analysis (PA) tends to yield more accurate results in determining the number of factors in comparison with other statistical methods. Nevertheless, all too often PA can suggest an incorrect number of factors, particularly in statistically unfavorable conditions (e.g., small sample sizes and…

It is shown that common factors are not subject to indeterminancy to the extent that has been claimed (Guttman, 1955), because the measure of indeterminancy that has been adopted is ill-founded. (Author/RC)

The question of whether test factor structure is indicative of the test item hierarchy was examined. Data from 1,000 subjects on two sets of five bivalued Law School Admission Test items, which were analyzed with latent trait methods of Bock and Lieberman and of Christoffersson in Psychometrika, were analyzed with an ordering-theoretic method to…

A TECHNIQUE OF PATTERN ANALYSIS WHICH EMPHASIZES THE DEVELOPMENT OF MORE EFFECTIVE WAYS OF SCORING A GIVEN SET OF VARIABLES WAS FORMULATED. TO THE ORIGINAL VARIABLES WERE SUCCESSIVELY ADDED TWO, THREE, AND FOUR VARIABLE PATTERNS AND THE INCREASE IN PREDICTIVE EFFICIENCY ASSESSED. RANDOMLY SELECTED HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS WHO HAD PARTICIPATED IN THE…