The heart of the Concept Mapping process is the mapping of the information produced in the structuring step. To represent the ideas, two things have to be done:

The map analysis must be conducted.

The facilitator must examine the initial results and prepare them for the interpretation step.

Recall that to this point in the process three types of data have been generated:

The set of brainstormed statements

The sorting data

The rating data

The Compute Maps step relies only on the sorting data.

Two major analyses must be performed to map the conceptual domain:

1. Multidimensional scaling locates each statement as a separate point on the map.

2. Cluster analysis partitions the points (statements) on the map into groups.

The Compute Maps step begins with the data generated in the Structure Ideas step and ends with a set of materials (i.e., maps and statement listings) to be used as the basis of the interpretation session.

Click on text below to find out more about process activities and software steps. Topics shaded in blue are for users as well as facilitators.

Compute Maps Table