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This documents gives some instructions on how to create graphical representations of a correlation matrix in the statistical environment R with package Correlplot
, using a variety of different statistical methods (@GraffelmanDeLeeuw). We use principal component analysis (PCA), multidimensional scaling (MDS), principal factor analysis (PFA), weighted alternating least squares (WALS), correlograms (CRG) and corrgrams to produce displays of correlation structure. The next section shows how to use the functions of the package in order to create the different graphical representations. The computation of goodness-of-fit statistics is also addressed. All methods are illustrated on a single data set, the wheat kernel data introduced below.
We first load some packages we will use:
library(calibrate) library(corrplot) library(Correlplot)
Throughout this vignette, we will use the wheat kernel data set taken from the UCI Machine Learning Repository (https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/seeds) in order to illustrate the different plots. The wheat kernel data (@Charytanowicz) consists of 210 wheat kernels, of which the variables area ($A$), perimeter ($P$), compactness ($C = 4\piA/P^2$), length, width, asymmetry coefficient and groove (length of kernel groove) were registered. There are 70 kernels of each of three varieties Kama, Rosa and Canadian; here we will only use the kernels of variety Kama. The data is made available with:
data("Kernels") X <- Kernels[Kernels$variety==1,] X <- X[,-8] head(X)
The correlation matrix of the variables is given by:
R <- cor(X) round(R,digits=3)
The corrgram (@Friendly) is a tabular display of the entries of a correlation matrix that uses colour and shading to represent correlations. Corrgrams can be made with the fuction corrplot
corrplot(R, method="circle",type="lower")
This shows most correlations are positive, and correlations with asymmetry are weak.
The correlogram (@Trosset) represents correlations by the cosines between vectors.
vnames <- substr(colnames(R),1,4) colnames(R) <- rownames(R) <- vnames colnames(X) <- vnames
theta.cos <- correlogram(R,xlim=c(-1.1,1.1),ylim=c(-1.1,1.1),main="CRG")
The vector theta.cos
contains the angles (in radians) of each variable with respect to the positive $x$-axis. The approximation provided by these angles to the correlation matrix is calculated by
Rhat.cor <- angleToR(theta.cos)
The correlogram always perfectly represents the correlations of the variables with themselves, and these have a structural contribution of zero to the loss function. We calculate the root mean squared error (RMSE) of the approximation by using function rmse
. We include the diagonal in the RMSE calculation by setting omit.diagonal
to FALSE
.
rmse.crg <- rmse(R,Rhat.cor,omit.diagonal=FALSE) rmse.crg
This gives and RMSE of r formatC(rmse.crg, digits=4, format = "f")
,
which shows this representation has a large amount of error. The correlogram can be modified by
using a linear interpretation rule, rendering correlations linear in
the angle (@Graffelman2013). This representation is obtained by:
theta.lin <- correlogram(R,ifun="lincos",labs=colnames(R),xlim=c(-1.1,1.1), ylim=c(-1.1,1.1),main="CRG")
The approximation to the correlation matrix by using this linear interpretation function is calculated by
Rhat.corlin <- angleToR(theta.lin,ifun="lincos") rmse.lin <- rmse(R,Rhat.corlin,omit.diagonal=FALSE) rmse.lin
and this gives a RMSE of r formatC(rmse.lin, digits=4, format = "f")
. In this case, the linear representation is seen to improve the approximation.
We create a PCA biplot of the correlation matrix, doing the calculations for a PCA by hand, using the singular value decomposition of the (scaled) standardized data. Alternatively, standard R function princomp
may be used to obtain the coordinates needed for the correlation biplot. We use function bplot
from package
calibrate
to make the biplot:
n <- nrow(X) Xt <- scale(X)/sqrt(n-1) res.svd <- svd(Xt) Fs <- sqrt(n)*res.svd$u # standardized principal components Gp <- res.svd$v%*%diag(res.svd$d) # biplot coordinates for variables bplot(Fs,Gp,colch=NA,collab=colnames(X),xlab="PC1",ylab="PC2",main="PCA")
The joint representation of kernels and variables emphasizes this is a biplot of the (standardized) data matrix. However, this plot is a double biplot because scalar products between variable vectors approximate the correlation matrix. We stress this by plotting the variable vectors only, and adding a unit circle:
bplot(Gp,Gp,colch=NA,rowch=NA,collab=colnames(X),xl=c(-1,1), yl=c(-1,1),main="PCA") circle()
The PCA biplot of the correlation matrix can be obtained from a correlation-based PCA or also directly from the spectral decomposition of the correlation matrix. The rank two approximation, obtained by means of scalar products between vectors, is calculated by:
Rhat.pca <- Gp[,1:2]%*%t(Gp[,1:2])
In principle, PCA also tries to approximate the ones on the diagonal of the correlation matrix. These are included in the RMSE calculation by setting omit.diagonal
to FALSE
.
rmse.pca <- rmse(R,Rhat.pca,omit.diagonal=FALSE) rmse.pca
This gives a RMSE of r formatC(rmse.pca, digits=4, format = "f")
,
which is an improvement over the previous correlograms. Function rmse
can also be used to calculate the RMSE of each variable
separately:
rmse(R,Rhat.pca,omit.diagonal=FALSE,per.variable=TRUE)
This shows that asymmetry has the worst fit.
We transform correlations to distances with the $\sqrt{2(1-r)}$ transformation, and use the cmdscale
function from the stats
package to perform metric multidimensional scaling. We mark negative correlations with a dashed red line.
Di <- sqrt(2*(1-R)) out.mds <- cmdscale(Di,eig = TRUE) Fp <- out.mds$points opar <- par(bty = "l") plot(Fp[,1],Fp[,2],asp=1,xlab="First principal axis", ylab="Second principal axis",main="MDS") textxy(Fp[,1],Fp[,2],colnames(R),cex=0.75) par(opar) ii <- which(R < 0,arr.ind = TRUE) for(i in 1:nrow(ii)) { segments(Fp[ii[i,1],1],Fp[ii[i,1],2], Fp[ii[i,2],1],Fp[ii[i,2],2],col="red",lty="dashed") }
We calculate distances in the map, convert these back to correlations:
Dest <- as.matrix(dist(Fp[,1:2])) Rhat.mds <- 1-0.5*Dest*Dest
Again, correlations of the variables with themselves are perfectly approximated (zero distance), and we include these in the RMSE calculations:
rmse.mds <- rmse(R,Rhat.mds,omit.diagonal=FALSE) rmse.mds
Principal factor analysis can be performed by the function pfa
of package Correlplot
. We extract the factor loadings.
out.pfa <- Correlplot::pfa(X,verbose=FALSE) L <- out.pfa$La
The biplot of the correlation matrix obtained by PFA is in fact the same as what is known as a factor loading plot in factor analysis, to which a unit circle can be added. The approximation to the correlation matrix and its RMSE are calculated as:
Rhat.pfa <- L[,1:2]%*%t(L[,1:2]) rmse.pfa <- rmse(R,Rhat.pfa) rmse.pfa
In this case, the diagonal is excluded, for PFA explicitly avoids fitting the diagonal. To make the factor loading plot, aka PFA biplot of the correlation matrix:
bplot(L,L,pch=NA,xl=c(-1,1),yl=c(-1,1), xlab="Factor 1",ylab="Factor 2",main="PFA",rowch=NA, colch=NA) circle()
The RMSE of the plot obtained by PFA is r formatC(rmse.pfa, digits=4, format = "f")
, lower than the RMSE obtained by PCA. Note that
variable area reaches the unit circle for having a communality of 1, or, equivalently, specificity 0, i.e. PFA produces what is known as a Heywood case in factor analysis. The specificities are given by:
diag(out.pfa$Psi)
The correlation matrix can also be factored using weighted alternating least squares, avoiding the fit of the ones on the diagonal of the correlation matrix by assigning them weight 0, using function ipSymLS
(@DeLeeuw).
W <- matrix(1,nrow(R),nrow(R)) diag(W) <- 0 Fp.als <- ipSymLS(R,w=W,eps=1e-15)
bplot(Fp.als,Fp.als,rowch=NA,colch=NA,collab=colnames(R), xl=c(-1.1,1.1),yl=c(-1.1,1.1),main="WALS") circle()
Weighted alternating least squares has, in contrast to PFA, no restriction on the vector length. If the vector lengths in the biplot are calculated, then variable area is seen to just move out of the unit circle.
Rhat.wals <- Fp.als%*%t(Fp.als) sqrt(diag(Rhat.wals)) rmse.als <- rmse(R,Rhat.wals) rmse.als
The RMSE of the approximation obtained by WALS is r formatC(rmse.als, digits=6, format = "f")
, slightly below the RMSE of PFA. The WALS low rank approximation to the correlation matrix can also be obtained by the more generic function wAddPCA
, which allows for non-symmetric matrices and adjustments (see the next section). In order to get uniquely defined biplot vectors for each variable, corresponding to symmetric input, an eigendecomposition is applied to the fitted correlation matrix.
p <- nrow(R) W <- matrix(1,p,p) diag(W) <- 0 out.wals <- wAddPCA(R, W, add = "nul", verboseout = FALSE, epsout = 1e-10) Rhat.wals <- out.wals$a%*%t(out.wals$b) out.eig <- eigen(Rhat.wals) Fp.adj <- out.eig$vectors[,1:2]%*%diag(sqrt(out.eig$values[1:2])) rmse.als <- rmse(R,Rhat.wals) rmse.als
A scalar adjustment can be employed to improve the approximation of the correlation matrix, and the adjusted correlation matrix is factored for a biplot representation. That means we seek the factorization
[ {\mathbf R}_a = {\mathbf R} - \delta {\mathbf J} = {\mathbf G} {\mathbf G}', ]
where both $\delta$ and $\mathbf G$ are chosen such that the (weighted) residual sum of squares is minimal. This problem is solved by using function wAddPCA
.
p <- nrow(R) W <- matrix(1,p,p) diag(W) <- 0 out.wals <- wAddPCA(R, W, add = "one", verboseout = FALSE, epsout = 1e-10) delta <- out.wals$delta[1,1] Rhat <- out.wals$a%*%t(out.wals$b) out.eig <- eigen(Rhat) Fp.adj <- out.eig$vectors[,1:2]%*%diag(sqrt(out.eig$values[1:2]))
The optimal adjustment $\delta$ is r formatC(delta, digits=3, format = "f")
. The corresponding biplot is shown below.
bplot(Fp.adj,Fp.adj,rowch=NA,colch=NA,collab=colnames(R), xl=c(-1.2,1.2),yl=c(-1.2,1.2),main="WALS adjusted") circle()
Note that, when calculating the fitted correlation matrix, adjustment $\delta$ is added back. The fitted correlation matrix and its RMSE are now calculated as:
Rhat.adj <- Fp.adj%*%t(Fp.adj)+delta rmse.adj <- rmse(R,Rhat.adj) rmse.adj
This gives RMSE r formatC(rmse.adj, digits=4, format = "f")
. This is smaller than the RMSE obtained by WALS without adjustment. We summarize the values of the RMSE of all methods in a table below:
rmsevector <- c(rmse.crg,rmse.lin,rmse.pca,rmse.mds,rmse.pfa,rmse.als,rmse.adj) methods <- c("CRG (cos)","CRG (lin)","PCA","MDS", "PFA","WALS R","WALS Radj") results <- data.frame(methods,rmsevector) results <- results[order(rmsevector),] results
A summary of RMSE calculations for four methods (PCA and WALS, both with and without $\delta$ adjustment) can be obtained by the functions
FitRwithPCAandWALS
and rmsePCAandWALS
; the first applies the four methods to the correlation matrix, and the latter calculates the RMSE statistics for the four approximations. The bottom line of the table produced by rmsePCAandWALS
gives the overall RMSE for each methods.
output <- FitRwithPCAandWALS(R,eps=1e-15) rmsePCAandWALS(R,output)
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