ABSTRACT
Sorting data consist of a table of n objects by N respondents of chosen classification piles. The following is an example in which 4 countries (a-d) were sorted into 2, 3, 3, 4 and 2 piles of similar countries by five subjects (S1-S5), under the instruction that “Sort the following 7 countries into as many piles as you see appropriate, using your judgment that countries in each pile are similar among themselves and different from countries in other piles.” The subjects were asked to put 1 for the first country presented, and then go down the list, assigning 1 to any number of countries which the subject considers are similar to the first country; assign 2 to one country from the remaining countries, and assign 2 to any number of countries not already chosen which the subject thinks are similar to the country 2; and so on until all the countries are classified into piles.
