Symmetrical and Non-symmetrical Variants of Three-Way Correspondence Analysis for Ordered Variables

In the framework of multi-way data analysis, this paper presents symmetrical and non-symmetrical variants of three-way correspondence analysis that are suitable when a three-way contingency table is constructed from ordinal variables. In particular, such variables may be modelled using general recurrence formulae to generate orthogonal polynomial vectors instead of singular vectors coming from one of the possible three-way extensions of the singular value decomposition. As we shall see, these polynomials, that until now have been used to decompose two-way contingency tables with ordered variables, also constitute an alternative orthogonal basis for modelling symmetrical, non-symmetrical associations and predictabilities in three-way contingency tables. Consequences with respect to modelling and graphing will be highlighted.