A Multidimensional Scaling Model Accommodating Differential Stimulus Familiarity

We introduce a multidimensional scaling procedure that attempts to derive a spatial representation of stimuli unconfounded by the effect of subjects' degrees of familiarity with these stimuli. The proposed model assumes that stimulus unfamiliarity produces a tendency for a subject to anchor his/her dissimilarity judgments towards a reference value on the response scale. The input data needed to perform such analyses are the degree of stimulus familiarity along with the dissimilarity judgments for all pairs of stimuli. In a Monte Carlo study, we investigate the extent to which the procedure recovers known parameters. Furthermore, empirical applications; of the model to positioning studies of magazines and banks in the Netherlands are provided.