A Study of the Beta-Flexible Clustering Method

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Abstract
The beta-flexible clustering method has exhibited good recovery performance in the few comparative simulation studies that have included the procedure. Further, the beta-flexible technique has not been examined in a systematic manner over the range of parameter values that can be specified for the method. The present report was designed to provide a more complete study of the recovery characteristics of the method. Artificial data were generated with a wide range of cluster configurations. Each data set was subjected to a series of different techniques for the introduction of error. The results indicate that the beta-flexible method with β=-.25 or .2 generally produces recovery rates that are competitive with the group average and Ward's (1963) technique. When outliers are present in the data, values in the range -.7 ≤ β ≤ -.4 are needed. The beta-flexible method showed a more stable or robust performance pattern than the two competing procedures across the differing error conditions. Finally, results on ...

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