SHORT COMMUNICATION DISPLAY ASPECTS IN HIERARCHICAL CLUSTERING

Ultrametric inter-object distances found by hierarchical clustering may be used to generate an appropriateconstellation of points in a plane.A configuration of points which reproduce the ultrametric distancesin a low-dimensional space as closely as possible can be found by Torgerson's method of multidimensionalscaling.The resulting display supports the cognition of clusters very well,and for this purpose it seemsto be superior to,for instance,the frequently applied principal components display.In certain sitt,ationsdedrograms are expected to become simpler to interpret when such complementary 'cluster display' is alsoconsulted.An example from analytical chemistry is presented.

SHORT COMMUNICATION DISPLAY ASPECTS IN HIERARCHICAL CLUSTERING

Ultrametric inter-object distances found by hierarchical clustering may be used to generate an appropriate constellation of points in a plane.A configuration of points which reproduce the ultrametric distances in a low-dimensional space as closely as possible can be found by Torgerson's method of multidimensional scaling.The resulting display supports the cognition of clusters very well,and for this purpose it seems to be superior to,for instance,the frequently applied principal components display.In certain sitt,ations dedrograms are expected to become simpler to interpret when such complementary 'cluster display' is also consulted.An example from analytical chemistry is presented.