AN OBJECTIVE COUNTERPART TO THE VISUAL SCREE TEST FOR FACTOR-ANALYSIS- THE STANDARD ERROR SCREE

Many methods have been suggested for determining the number of factors in factor analysis solutions, most of them trying to match visual sol utions. Presented here is a linear regression approach providing objec tivity while producing the same results as the visual scree test. The standard error scree is based on the standard error of estimate fbr a set of points in the plot of eigenvalues. The number of factors to ret ain corresponds to the point where the standard error exceeds 1/m, whe re m is the numbers of variables in the analysis. Experience with the method to date indicates that the results are consistent with visual s olutions.