Alexander P Christensen, Hudson Golino, Francisco J Abad, Luis Eduardo Garrido
{"title":"Revised network loadings.","authors":"Alexander P Christensen, Hudson Golino, Francisco J Abad, Luis Eduardo Garrido","doi":"10.3758/s13428-025-02640-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Psychometric assessment is the foundation of psychological research, where the accuracy of outcomes and their interpretations depend on measurement. Due to the widespread application of factor models, factor loadings are fundamental to modern psychometric assessment. Recent advances in network psychometrics introduced network loadings which aim to provide network models with a metric similar to factor loadings to assess measurement quality when the data are generated from a factor model. Our study revisits and refines the original network loadings to account for properties of (regularized) partial correlation networks, such as the reduction of partial correlation size as the number of variables increase, that were not considered previously. Using a simulation study, the revised network loadings demonstrated greater congruence with the simulated factor loadings across conditions relative to the original formulation. The simulation also evaluated how well correlations between factors can be captured by scores estimated with network loadings. The results show that not only can these network scores adequately estimate the simulated correlations between factors, they can do so without the need for rotation, a standard requirement for factor loadings. The consequence is that researchers do not need to choose a rotation with the revised network loadings, reducing the analytic degrees of freedom and eliminating this common source of variability in factor analysis. We discuss the interpretation of network loadings when data are believed to be generated from a network model and how they may fit into a network theory of measurement.</p>","PeriodicalId":8717,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Research Methods","volume":"57 4","pages":"114"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11909041/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Behavior Research Methods","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-025-02640-3","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Psychometric assessment is the foundation of psychological research, where the accuracy of outcomes and their interpretations depend on measurement. Due to the widespread application of factor models, factor loadings are fundamental to modern psychometric assessment. Recent advances in network psychometrics introduced network loadings which aim to provide network models with a metric similar to factor loadings to assess measurement quality when the data are generated from a factor model. Our study revisits and refines the original network loadings to account for properties of (regularized) partial correlation networks, such as the reduction of partial correlation size as the number of variables increase, that were not considered previously. Using a simulation study, the revised network loadings demonstrated greater congruence with the simulated factor loadings across conditions relative to the original formulation. The simulation also evaluated how well correlations between factors can be captured by scores estimated with network loadings. The results show that not only can these network scores adequately estimate the simulated correlations between factors, they can do so without the need for rotation, a standard requirement for factor loadings. The consequence is that researchers do not need to choose a rotation with the revised network loadings, reducing the analytic degrees of freedom and eliminating this common source of variability in factor analysis. We discuss the interpretation of network loadings when data are believed to be generated from a network model and how they may fit into a network theory of measurement.
期刊介绍:
Behavior Research Methods publishes articles concerned with the methods, techniques, and instrumentation of research in experimental psychology. The journal focuses particularly on the use of computer technology in psychological research. An annual special issue is devoted to this field.