Rotating the factor loadings
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There are four methods to orthogonally rotate the initial factor loadings found by either principal components or maximum likelihood extraction. An orthogonal rotation simply rotates the axes to give you a different perspective. The methods are equimax, varimax, quartimax, and orthomax. Minitab rotates the loadings in order to minimize a simplicity criterion [5]. A parameter, gamma, within this criterion is determined by the rotation method. If you use a method with a low value of gamma, the rotation will tend to simplify the rows of the loadings; if you use a method with a high value of gamma, the rotation will tend to simplify the columns of the loadings. The table below summarizes the rotation methods.