Note On a Criterion for the Number of Common Factors

LINN (1968) has published the results of a, Monte Carlo approach to the number of factors problem involving the use of random normal deviates as additional variables in correlational matrices from which principal components are extracted. Horn (1966) has made use of an independent component analysis of random normal deviates, parallel to the analysis of the &dquo;real&dquo; variables, in order to correct the Kaiser criterion (see Horn) which assumes population values of the correlations, for capitalization on chance in the sample. This note briefly presents some results obtained from another, and more promising, variation on their procedures. Linn found that his mean square ratios, analogous to F-ratios with data from the latent roots of real variables in the numerator and of random variables in the denomination, fluctuated widely