Plot of MAJOR COMPONENTS

The two screen shots below formed the heart of inGridX's analysis because they graphically represent the problem in its most important perspectives. Namely, component one plotted on the horizontal axis and component two on the vertical axis. The first screen set the "stage" as it were and the second brought on the "players". The first screen allows you to view the roles that each of the constructs play.

In looking at the first screen we see in the North East corner the construct "FUN". You now have to imagine there is a hyperplane running from FUN through the center and out the other side (SouthWest Quadrant). This is saying, as you can see in the second screen, that the School Subjects that score high on FUN are be placed towards the end of this imaginary vector that has the word "FUN" on it such as Health, PhysEd, Art, Sewing and the ones that score low on FUN are in the South West, e.g., Social Studies, Classical Studies and Science. The position each element takes on the individual construct lines as well as on the principal component lines is measured from where a perpendicular line drawn from the position of the element meets the particular construct or component axis.

In this tutorial case (Sally`s attitudes to her school subjects) inGridX allows you to freely explore without applying any form of preconceived conclusions. Knowing that you are dealing with a stable structure allows you to define relationships with labels that fit. It is this insight into relationships that I find most rewarding because whenever I do a grid I am expectant of being able to learn something new.

In Sally's example I concluded that her education was controlled by positive and negative learning conditions ( Interesting, Fun, Rewarding, GoodAt VS. Not explained, Complicated, Need to learn, Boring, etc.) and that secondly this was induced by the teachers relationship with Sally.

In looking at the scatter of elements (school Subjects) within the construct space a clear "What is it?" picture emerges. Although the components are fixed by Principal Component Analysis, the alignment of the picture is determined solely by the fact that the North and East directions contain the most area under the squares. This is saying in Sally's grid that the negative learning environment is outweighed by the positive in the terms expressed.

Plot of Factors for Components 1
Click here for an example using Dynamic HTML


Ppressing p or P increments or decrements a scrolling list of row and column labels and expanded descriptions. For each pair of row and column labels, that are displayed at the bottom of the plot, there is signed cell value and identification markers showing the exact position within the plot of the pair of features. For large grids this made for easy identification of a feature's exact position within the plot. If 'P' was used to pause the toggling labels then 'p' could be used to increment just the selected list. If toggling is then resumed by pressing Enter (see the animation above), the display will pause again when a suspected anomaly is found by comparing an 'off-signed' cell value with the grid's range of values. For this reason it might be required that you need to press the F10 QUIT key to return to the main menu. Alternatively if you press 'P' until neither list is selected pressing Enter twice would suffice to return to the menu.