software for MDS cluster analysis

[h***@yahoo.com]

Hi, I ran a card sorting experiment with 105 cards and 10
participants. I have created the co-occurrence matrix and the subject
distance matrix. Now, I need to feed these matrixes into a
statistical software to run MDS cluster analysis. I want to see the
clusters that emerged from the data, hopefully pictorially and in
numbers. I do not have experience using any stats software (so I am
learning about all these as I go) and would appreciate your inputs on
which software is the best (intuitive and easy to learn and use) for
my analysis. Also, is there a free (or at a reasonable price)
software package for this type of anlaysis.

I would really appreciate your inputs. Thank you very much.



'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`''`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
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[Art Kendall]

This is certainly jumping right into the deep end of the pool!



Especially since this is your first time to use a package, and assuming
that your time is the most expensive cost component, I suggest you take
a look at SPSS. It has both MDS including INDSCAL and cluster
analysis. If you are at a college or university the chances are they
already have it available.
You can also get a 30 day trial from SPSS.

For quality assurance purposes you are usually better off entering the
raw data verifying it, then letting the software do the transformations.
Are you sure you just want to scale the common (pooled, aggregated)
matrix and ignore all individual differences.

Art
***@DrKendall.org
Social Research Consultants
University Park, MD USA
[phone]

Post by h***@yahoo.com
Hi, I ran a card sorting experiment with 105 cards and 10
participants. I have created the co-occurrence matrix and the subject
distance matrix. Now, I need to feed these matrixes into a
statistical software to run MDS cluster analysis. I want to see the
clusters that emerged from the data, hopefully pictorially and in
numbers. I do not have experience using any stats software (so I am
learning about all these as I go) and would appreciate your inputs on
which software is the best (intuitive and easy to learn and use) for
my analysis. Also, is there a free (or at a reasonable price)
software package for this type of anlaysis.
I would really appreciate your inputs. Thank you very much.
'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`''`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
sci.psychology.research is a moderated newsgroup.
Before submitting an article, please read the guidelines which are posted
here bimonthly or the charter on the web at http://psychcentral.com/spr/
Submissions are acknowledged automatically.

'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`''`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
sci.psychology.research is a moderated newsgroup.
Before submitting an article, please read the guidelines which are posted
here bimonthly or the charter on the web at http://psychcentral.com/spr/
Submissions are acknowledged automatically.