Star graphs induce tetrad correlations: for Gaussian as well as for binary variables
Journal article, 2014

Tetrad correlations were obtained historically for Gaussian distributions when tasks are designed to measure an ability or attitude so that a single unobserved variable may generate the observed, linearly increasing dependences among the tasks. We connect such generating processes to a particular type of directed graph, the star graph, and to the notion of traceable regressions. Tetrad correlation conditions for the existence of a single latent variable are derived. These are needed for positive dependences not only in joint Gaussian but also in joint binary distributions. Three applications with binary items are given.

REGRESSIONS

ASSOCIATION

MODELS

item response models

graphical Markov models

SEQUENCES

P157

MPSTER AP

BIOMETRICS

Directed star graph

SYSTEMS

1972

latent class models

factor analysis

traceablereg ression

LIKELIHOOD

IDENTIFICATION

V28

Author

Nanny Wermuth

Chalmers, Mathematical Sciences, Mathematical Statistics

University of Gothenburg

Giovanni M. Marchetti

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

University of Florence

Chalmers, Mathematical Sciences

Electronic Journal of Statistics

1935-7524 (ISSN)

Vol. 8 1 253-273

Subject Categories

Mathematics

Probability Theory and Statistics

DOI

10.1214/14-ejs884

More information

Latest update

12/6/2018