Which term is the general term for the structure matrix in factor analysis?

• A. Factor matrix
• B. Factor loading
• C. Factor score
• D. Fixed coefficient

Answer: (A)

In factor analysis, the numbers that show how strongly each observed variable relates to each latent factor are called loadings. The entire set of these loadings for all variables and all factors forms a matrix known as the factor loading matrix, sometimes called the factor matrix. The structure matrix shown in output essentially lists these correlations between variables and factors, so the general term for that matrix is the factor matrix. The individual entries are the loadings, while a factor score would be a computed value for each case on a latent factor, which is a different concept.