A general formulation for unidimensional unfolding and pairwise preference models: Making explicit the latitude of acceptance (Q1281701)

The paper under review tries to establish a general formulation for unidimensional unfolding models, which would permit the identification of two structural factors, namely the operational function and the latitude of acceptance parameter. Further on, this permits to generate different unfolding models. The conclusion of the study is that the properties required by any particular operational function may be non-negative, monotonic, and symmetric. Single peaked response functions are related, according to Thurstone, to the concept of attitude, which involves the step in which the person responded to statements. The response may be either agree or disagree, and it is considered as the ``maximum probability'' type. The term unfolding characterized the manner of identification of direction in the presence of responses which, in their turn, depended on the distance between the locations of the person and the statement.