A Study of the Comparability of External Criteria for Hierarchical Cluster Analysis
- 1 October 1986
- journal article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Multivariate Behavioral Research
- Vol. 21 (4) , 441-458
- https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr2104_5
Abstract
Five external criteria were used to evaluate the extent of recovery of the true structure in a hierarchical clustering solution. This was accomplished by comparing the partitions produced by the clustering algorithm with the partition that indicates the true cluster structure known to exist in the data. The five criteria examined were the Rand, the Morey and Agresti adjusted Rand, the Hubert and Arabie adjusted Rand, the Jaccard, and the Fowlkes and Mallows measures. The results of the study indicated that the Hubert and Arabie adjusted Rank index was best suited to the task of comparison across hierarchy levels. Deficiencies with the other measures are noted.Keywords
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