Cobweb Diagrams for Multiway Contingency Tables

Abstract

Cobwebs represent the categories of cross-classifying variables by nodes on the arcs of a circle. Linking two nodes by a line provides information about the corresponding two-variable marginal table. In this paper the widths of the lines are proportional to the square of the adjusted residuals corresponding to the fit of the independence model to the marginal table. Lines are shaded to indicate the signs of the residuals. The method can be used with variables of mixed types and for conditional independence models.