Chunk #32 — Three methods to decide between latent dimensionality and latent categories — Model-based clustering

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Does nature have joints worth carving? A discussion of taxometrics, model-based clustering and latent variable mixture modeling.

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The framework offers great flexibility for comparing alternative models that differ with respect to whether volume, shape and/or orientation are cluster invariant or cluster specific, and with respect to the number of clusters (Fraley et al. 2012). Technical details of model-based clustering can be found in the online Supplementary material. The models are not limited to two clusters. The best-fitting model can be selected using, for instance, the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). If a model with a single cluster fits best, then the hypothesis of taxonicity is rejected.