Proposal of the Dichotomous STATIS DUAL Method: Software and Application for the Analysis of Dichotomous Data, Applied to the Test of Learning Styles in University Students

Abstract

The present work analyzed a review of methods for analyzing sequences of matrices or dichotomous data. A new method for a sequence of dichotomous matrices with a different number of rows is presented; the Dichotomous STATIS DUAL. Suppose we match the sequence of matrices by different years, with this method. In that case, we can graphically represent the relations among the different columns of all the matrices, and the relations between those columns and the different years, because everything can be represented in the same plots. As in all STATIS methods, three different plots can get: (i) the interstructure, with the relations among the years; (ii) the compromise, with the stable part of the relations between the columns; and (iii) the intrastructure (also known as trajectories), with the relations between columns and years, in other words, the evolution of the columns through the time. This new mathematical method can be used with all kinds of dichotomous data, thanks to the software we propose. In the present work, the software was applied to the assessment of learning styles.