Multidimensional Scaling Introductory Overview - Interpreting the Dimensions

The interpretation of dimensions usually represents the final step of the analysis. As mentioned earlier, the actual orientations of the axes from the Multidimensional Scaling analysis are arbitrary, and can be rotated in any direction. A first step is to produce scatterplots of the objects in the different two-dimensional planes.

Three-dimensional solutions can also be illustrated graphically, however, their interpretation is somewhat more complex.

In addition to "meaningful dimensions," one should also look for clusters of points or particular patterns and configurations (such as circles, manifolds, etc.). For a detailed discussion of how to interpret final configurations, see Borg and Lingoes (1987), Borg and Shye (in press), or Guttman (1968).

Use of multiple regression techniques
An analytical way of interpreting dimensions (described in Kruskal & Wish, 1978) is to use multiple regression techniques to regress some meaningful variables on the coordinates for the different dimensions. Note that this can easily be done via Multidimensional Scaling.