A Comparative Study of Some Selected Methods of Pattern Analysis

Iterative, Intercolumnar Correlational Analysis was developed out of a theory of types (McQuitty and Clark, 1968). A type is defined as a category of objects of such a nature that every object in the category possesses a common and unique combination of characteristics; every object in the category possesses all of these characteristics, and no object not in the category possesses all of the characteristics; a nonmember may possess some but not all of the characteristics. Prior to the development of the iterative method many other methods for the isolation of types, as defined above, had been developed by the author. All of these methods, including the iterative method, start with a matrix of interassociations between objects. Every object is assessed in terms of selected characteristics and the relation of every object with every other object is recorded in terms of a numerical index to yield a matrix of interassociations between