v 17.01 mislabels dendgrograms created in CLUSTER procedure

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v 17.01 mislabels dendgrograms created in CLUSTER procedure

Beckstead, Jason
Hello Listers,
 
I have been using SPSS CLUSTER procedure for hierarchical cluster analyses for many years but only recently had the need to use the procedure in v 17. I am concerned because if the user requests within-groups averaging method, the appropriate algorithm seems to be applied but resulting figure is mislabeled "Between-groups" . I don't know what other "improvements" have been made to the procedure in v 17, but I am now hesitant to trust the results.
 
_____________________________________________________________
Jason W. Beckstead, Ph.D.       
  Associate Professor/Quantitative Methodologist
  University of South Florida College of Nursing
  12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC22, Tampa, FL 33612, USA
  Statistical Editor, International Journal of Nursing Studies
  phone: +1.813.974.7667  fax: +1.813.974.5418          
  International Journal of Nursing Studies
 
 
 
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Re: v 17.01 mislabels dendgrograms created in CLUSTER procedure

SPSS Support

Hello Jason,

   The method labeling of the dendrogram, where ‘Average Linkage (Between Groups)’ is printed in the title regardless of the actual linking method used, has been filed as a bug for Statistics 17. It is expected to be fixed in version 18. I’ve pasted a related resolution from the Knowledgebase at http://support.spss.com below my signature.

 

David Matheson

SPSS Statistical Support

 

*********************

Resolution number: 83549  Created on: Apr 30 2009  Last Reviewed on: May 5 2009

Problem Subject:  Cluster labels results as between groups averaging although within groups averaging requested

Problem Description:  I have been using the CLUSTER procedure for hierarchical cluster analyses in PASW Statistics 17. I clustered the same set of variables with several linkage methods to see whether the cluster memberships would change. Regardless of the linkage method chosen, the Dendrogram was titled "Dendrogram Using Average Linkage (Between Groups)". The dendrograms actually differ across runs with different linkage methods and reflect the Agglomeration schedule for each run. The linkage method that is reported in the "Case Processing Summary" footnote reflects the linkage method chosen for each run.

Resolution Subject: Mislabeled linkage method in dendrogram title filed as defect for Statistics 17

Resolution Description
The method labeling of the dendrogram, where 'Average Linkage (Between Groups)' is printed in the title regardless of the actual linking method used, has been filed as a bug for Statistics 17. It is expected to be fixed in version 18.0. The dendrogram does reflect the linkage method that was chosen by the user, despite the mislabeled title.

 

 


From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Beckstead, Jason
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:06 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: v 17.01 mislabels dendgrograms created in CLUSTER procedure

 

Hello Listers,

 

I have been using SPSS CLUSTER procedure for hierarchical cluster analyses for many years but only recently had the need to use the procedure in v 17. I am concerned because if the user requests within-groups averaging method, the appropriate algorithm seems to be applied but resulting figure is mislabeled "Between-groups" . I don't know what other "improvements" have been made to the procedure in v 17, but I am now hesitant to trust the results.

 

_____________________________________________________________

Jason W. Beckstead, Ph.D.       

  Associate Professor/Quantitative Methodologist

  University of South Florida College of Nursing

  12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC22, Tampa, FL 33612, USA

  Statistical Editor, International Journal of Nursing Studies

  phone: +1.813.974.7667  fax: +1.813.974.5418          

  International Journal of Nursing Studies