Version 2.4 of Idiogrid

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1 Version 2.4 of Idiogrid Structural and Visual Modifications 1. Tab delimited grids in Grid Data window. The most immediately obvious change to this newest version of Idiogrid will be the tab sheets that delimit the grids. Now, when the user opens multiple grids, each grid will be located on a separate tab sheet labeled with the name of the grid. A particular grid can then be selected using the methods in Version 2.3 (e.g., the Grid Selection Arrow or Grid Name Selector) or by simply clicking the grid s tab. 2. Updated Grid Data Editor. The editor for the Grid Data window has been updated and made more user-friendly. To edit a value in the grid, the user simply double-clicks the cell of the matrix or presses F2 to open an edit box. The grid value can then be edited, and selecting the Escape button cancels the edit without invoking the changes. Moreover, the user can undo the most recent edits, so mistakes are easily corrected. Major changes to the grid structure (e.g., changes in the number of constructs or elements) can also be undone, again helping to reduce errors and potential loss of information. 3. Variable grid column widths. The width of the grid columns can be toggled to fixed, or they can be toggled to variable, which will vary the width of each column to display the entire element label. 4. Labeling grids and naming grid files. The Grid Name in the Grid Data window of version 2.3 has been replaced with Grid Label, and the file to which the grid has been saved is now provided in the Options Panel located at the bottom of the Grid Data window. With these modifications, the user can clearly understand the grid label as a simple identifying name for the grid that is separate from the name of the file to which the grid is saved. 5. Menu options reconfigured for opening and closing grids. The menu options for creating, loading, saving, and closing grids have been renamed (in some cases) and improved. All of these options are now located under the File option of the Main Menu. In version 2.3 the options for creating a new grid and deleting grids were located under the Edit option of the Main Menu. Deleting options are now referred to as Closing grids, and loading options are now referred to as Opening grids. Moreover, grids can be saved under their current file names or saved as grids to different files. 6. Options added to Main Menu. By selecting Options the user can change the set the missing value, set the decimal precision, change the way matrices are displayed in the output, and choose to save matrix output from different analyses to individual grids (see below).

2 7. Single setup files. Setup options for the various grid elicitation routines are now saved into single setup files that can be more easily store, retrieved, and shared among users. Idiogrid will automatically launch and then load a setup file that is double-clicked in the Windows environment (e.g., a file that is saved on the desktop). Setup files for the Generic Repertory Grid, Generic Rating Task, Sentence Completion Task, and Coordinate Grid elicitation routines in Idiogrid can be saved and then directly loaded from the Windows environment. 8. Automatic opening of grid files. Once installed, Idiogrid will automatically launch and load a grid file that is double-clicked in the Windows environment (e.g., a grid that is saved on the desktop). 9. Updated format for saved grids. The grids (data matrices) entered into or generated by Idiogrid are now saved in a slightly different format. The grids are still simple text files, but the layout of these files has been changed. Tags are now included in the text files to identify the different values (e.g., number of constructs) or grid contents (e.g., the constructs and elements). If the user wishes to examine this new structure, a saved grid can simply be opened and viewed with a text editor program or word processing program. Finally, this new version (2.4) of Idiogrid will read old grids from previous versions, but the previous versions will not open files saved with Version Default missing value. The new default missing value is now set to in Version 2.4. This change was made primarily due to the addition of the Dynamic Analog Scaling technique (see below) that has a scale range of -200 to +200, which would include the previous default missing value of -99 in Version 2.3. The user can still set the missing value to some other desired value. 11. Revealing long labels. Most windows in Idiogrid that display elements or constructs can now be expanded so that long labels can be viewed without the aid of a scrollbar. 12. Editable graphs. All graphs are now saved as Window MetaFiles. As.wmf files, the graphs can be loaded into Powerpoint, Word, or other Microsoft products and edited. Each label, line, and individual annotation in a graph can be resized, rotated, changed in size, changed in color, etc. once it is loaded into a Microsoft program. Graphs can also be exported to high-resolution Bitmap and JPEG files in Idiogrid. Major New Analyses 1. Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). A generic SVD option was added to the list of analyses. Four matrices can be analyzed: scale-centered grid data, original grid data, standardized grid data, and construct Euclidean distances. When the standardized grid data are analyzed the results are very nearly equivalent to a Principal Components Analysis based on the correlations. The only difference is the singular values from the SVD are equal to the square roots of the eigenvalues from the PCA. The primary advantage of SVD is that it represents a simple transformation of the grid data and can yield 2-dimensional plots that

3 may be more accurate reflections of the original ratings. 2. Profile Analysis. A small suite of analyses for examining patterns of ratings for elements across the constructs was added. For rotated grids, patterns of ratings for constructs across the elements can be examined. Analyses include a low budget but effective clustering technique (including a randomization routine for setting the cluster-inclusion cut-point), profile plots, and an option for examining the elevation, scatter, and dispersion of ratings. 3. Dilemma Analysis. These analyses are derived from the work of Feixas and his colleagues for identifying intra-personal dilemmas in the grid ratings. 4. Dependency Analysis. These analyses are suitable for dependency grids originally described by George A. Kelly. The specific analysis options are derived from the work of Bell and Walker and their colleagues. Modified Analyses 1. PCA now replaces missing values instead of using Listwise deletion. Variables with no variance are still deleted unless the covariance matrix is analyzed. 2. Multiple Group Components Analysis (MGCA) now includes an option for conducting the analysis on the covariance matrix in addition to the correlation matrix. 3. An option for saving the composite scores generated in in MGCA was added. 4. MGCA can extend defined components to larger grids. For an example application, please see my entry in the Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics for Generalized Procrustes Analysis in which I defined the components on a few constructs and then applied the defined components to a larger concatenated grid. 5. In the Generalized Procrustes Analysis options window the selected grids will stay selected when window is closed and opened again. In Version 2.3 the user had to re-select the grids each time the options window was opened. 6. Rescaled grids in Generalized Procrustes Analysis can be saved. When plotting the people in the extended consensus space, it is best to create the concatenated grid from the rescaled grids. Again, see the GPA encyclopedia entry. New Options 1. Dynamic Analog Scale. A new type of rating scale, the Dynamic Analog Scale (DAS), was added as an option for collecting ratings along continuous dimensions anchored by elicited or provided constructs.

4 2. Computing Composite Scores. Composite scores for either elements or constructs can now be computed in Idiogrid. Simple sums, averages, and medians of constructs or elements can be computed, or more complex weighted variables can be computed. For traditional questionnaires, items can be reverse-keyed and summed into total scores. 3. Saving Matrix Output. Matrix output from any analysis can automatically be saved as a grid in Idiogrid. For example, the user may save the construct correlation matrix as a grid that can then be analyzed or exported. Any matrix of numbers that is produced from an analysis in Idiogrid may be saved as a grid in this same manner. 4. Collate and Export to SPSS. Multiple grids can now be collated, automatically, and exported to SPSS for further analysis. 5. Aligning construct poles in Generic Rating Task. It is often useful to ask the person completing a repertory grid to align the construct poles according to some criterion (e.g., desirability). This aligning feature has been available in the Generic Repertory Grid and Sentence Completion tasks, and it is now available in the Generic Rating Task. 6. Reflecting multiple constructs. Multiple constructs can now be reflected. In Version 2.3, only one construct could be reflected at a time. 7. Find/Replace in multiple grids. The Find and Replace options can now be used to search through all of the open grids for a particular rating value or character string in the constructs or elements. 8. Graph options. As noted above, all graphs are now saved (by default) as Windows Metafiles that can be loaded into Microsoft programs and edited. In addition, the axis range for the 2-dimensional Principal Components plots can now be changed by the user. The user can also toggle an option for including or excluding the elements in the 2-dimensional space. Corrected Bugs: 1. Dyadic Elicitation. The initial instructions for the dyadic elicitation method did not save when the Go: Administer Grid button was selected or when the setup file was saved. Any changes to the initial instructions created by the user were therefore not saved. This error has been corrected. 2. Slater Two Grids Analysis. The second table of descriptive statistics was incorrectly labeled with the name of the first grid. This bug has been corrected. 3. Extra element appended. When loading multiple files with only one element, Idiogrid appended an extra element, labeled ele_2" to the grid. The extra element is no longer added when loading multiple grids.

5 4. Data reading error. Depending on the magnitude of the numbers, version 2.3 of Idiogrid would not always read in a saved transformed (as opposed to a rating, ranking, or binary) grid successfully. This bug has been corrected. 5. Changing fonts in text. Minor bugs to the ways fonts were highlighted and changed were corrected. The highlighted text now stays highlighted when the font dialog box opens. In addition, selecting Cancel from the font dialog form no longer permits the changes to the text. In Version 2.3, even selecting Cancel would lead to the font change. {May want to consider adding an Apply or Preview button so user can preview changes before accepting them. You ll need to make a backup RichEdit copy that can be saved and restored if the user selects Cancel}. This bug has been corrected. 6. Loading multiple grids. When loading multiple files, the users could not load files from multiple directories. This bug has been corrected. 7. PCA plot axis labels. A minor labeling bug for the PCA plotting routine was corrected. When the options for an existing PCA plot were changed, the component axes were always labeled as 1 and 2, even though the original labels may have been different (e.g., 3 and 4). This bug has been corrected. 8. Loading multiple grids. When multiple, modified grids were saved, their status was not always changed to modified = false and the user was thus prompted to save the grids again upon closing Idiogrid. This bug has been corrected. 9. Loading multiple grids. When loading multiple grid files an error would occur when the user exited the option, loaded a grid or setup file using another option, and then returned to the Load Multiple Grids option. When the user attempted to load new multiple grids, not a valid grid file error would occur. This bug has been corrected. 10. International decimals. For some countries decimals are represented by commas (, ) instead of periods (. ). Idiogrid 2.3 did not recognize this difference, which caused errors when saving and loading grids and when Principal Components and Multiple-Group Components analyses were conducted. To overcome these errors, the user needed to change a setting in Windows to recognize decimals as periods rather than commas. Idiogrid 2.4 now has an internal variable that overrides the Windows setting; thus, the errors to not occur, and the user is not required to change the Windows setting.