SUPPRESSING PERMUTATIONS OR RIGID PLANAR ROTATIONS - A REMEDY AGAINSTNONOPTIMAL VARIMAX ROTATIONS

Varimax rotation consists of iteratively rotating pairs of columns of a matrix to a maximal sum (over columns) of variances of squared eleme nts of the matrix. Without loss of optimality, the two rotated columns can be permuted and/or reflected. Although permutations and reflectio ns are harmless for each planar rotation per se, they can be harmful i n Varimax rotation. Specifically, they often give rise to the phenomen on that certain pairs of columns are consistently skipped in the itera tive process, whence Varimax will be terminated at a nonstationary poi nt. The skipping phenomenon is demonstrated, and it is shown how to pr event it.