Ober Beth A, Shenaut Gregory K
Human Development, University of California, Davis 95616, USA.
Neuropsychology. 2003 Apr;17(2):315-7; discussion 323-9. doi: 10.1037/0894-4105.17.2.315.
G. Storms, T. Dirikx, J. Saerens, S. Verstaeten, and P. P. De Deyn (2003) have provided an important critique of the use of multidimensional scaling (MDS) to evaluate semantic knowledge in Alzheimer's disease. If MDS is to be used with semantic proximity data (in spite of well-documented reasons for not doing so), at minimum, the issues raised in G. Storms et al. should be considered. A few criticisms of the target article are presented. Then, the manner in which key points from the article, along with a consideration of such factors affecting proximity elicitation as semantic domains, tasks, and the experimental context, could be applied to correct certain shortcomings in the literature are discussed.
