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Visualization for Departures from Symmetry with the Power-Divergence-Type Measure in Square Contingency Tables

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2025

Wataru Urasaki*
Affiliation:
Tokyo University of Science - Noda Campus , Japan
Tomoyuki Nakagawa
Affiliation:
Meisei University - Hino Campus , Japan
Jun Tsuchida
Affiliation:
Kyoto Women’s University , Japan
Kouji Tahata
Affiliation:
Tokyo University of Science - Noda Campus , Japan
*
Corresponding author: Wataru Urasaki; Email: urasaki.stat@gmail.com
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Abstract

When the row and column variables consist of the same category in a two-way contingency table, it is called a square contingency table. Since square contingency tables have an association structure due to the concentration of observed values near the main diagonal, a primary objective is to examine symmetric relationships and transitions between variables. Various models and measures have been proposed to analyze these structures to understand the changes between two variables’ behavior at two-time points or cohorts. This is necessary for a detailed investigation of individual categories and their interrelationships, such as shifts in brand preferences. We propose a novel approach to correspondence analysis (CA) for evaluating departures from symmetry in square contingency tables with nominal categories, using a modified divergence statistic. This approach ensures that well-known divergence statistics can also be visualized and regardless of the divergence statistics used, the CA plot consists of two principal axes with equal contribution rates. Notably, the scaling of the departures from symmetry provided by the modified divergence statistic is independent of sample size, allowing for meaningful comparisons and unification of results across different tables. Confidence regions are also constructed to enhance the accuracy of the CA plot.

Information

Type
Theory and Methods
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Psychometric Society
Figure 0

Table 1 Choice of first and second purchases of five brands of decaffeinated coffee

Figure 1

Figure 1 $\lambda =-1/2$ (Freeman–Tukey statistic).

Figure 2

Figure 2 $\lambda =0$ (KL divergence statistic).

Figure 3

Figure 3 $\lambda =2/3$ (Cressie–Read statistic).

Figure 4

Figure 4 $\lambda =1$ (Pearson’s divergence statistic).

Figure 5

Table 2 Example for the values of $s_{ij}$ by $\lambda =1$

Figure 6

Table 3 Opinions about teenage sex, premarital sex, and extramarital sex from 1989 General Social Survey, with categories: (1) always wrong; (2) almost always wrong; (3) wrong only sometimes; and (4) not wrong at all

Figure 7

Table 4 SVD of $8\times 8$ block matrix and principal coordinates

Figure 8

Figure 5 Visualization of the sum component of the response scales with $\lambda =1$.

Figure 9

Figure 6 Visualization of the difference component of the response scales with $\lambda =1$.

Figure 10

Table 5 The values of the element of $\mathbf S_{+(\lambda )}$ and $\mathbf S_{-(\lambda )}$ by $\lambda =1$