Multidimensional Scaling II

Abstract

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a method for the visualization of dissimilarities between pairs of objects. The representation of the objects is done in a low (usually two)-dimensional space by the distance between the pairs of points. In metric MDS the distances approximate the dissimilarities directly, and in nonmetric (ordinal) MDS the distances should match the rank order of the dissimilarities as well as possible. As distance measure, almost invariably the Euclidean distance is used. The fit is expressed by the Stress value. The interpretation of the MDS configuration is done in terms of the distances between the points.