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Simplimax: Oblique Rotation to an Optimal Target with Simple Structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Henk A. L. Kiers
Henk A. L. Kiers*
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Henk A. L. Kiers, Department of Psychology (SPA), Grote Kruisstr.2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, THE NETHERLANDS.
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Abstract

Factor analysis and principal component analysis are usually followed by simple structure rotations of the loadings. These rotations optimize a certain criterion (e.g., varimax, oblimin), designed to measure the degree of simple structure of the pattern matrix. Simple structure can be considered optimal if a (usually large) number of pattern elements is exactly zero. In the present paper, a class of oblique rotation procedures is proposed to rotate a pattern matrix such that it optimally resembles a matrix which has an exact simple pattern. It is demonstrated that this method can recover relatively complex simple structures where other well-known simple structure rotation techniques fail.

Keywords

factor analysiscomponent analysisPromax
Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , December 1994 , pp. 567 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

This research has been made possible by a fellowship from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The author is obliged to Jos ten Berge for helpful comments on an earlier version.

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