Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) creates a two (usually) dimensioanl represention of data that preserves closeness. Its input is a similarity matrix (Sik) or a dissimilarity matrix (Dik) between items an then allocates for each item i coordinates (xi,yi) such that, on average, when the Euclidean distance between (xi,yi) and (xj,yj) is small then Sik) is large (or Dik) is small) and vice versa.
Used on Chap. 8: page 160
Also known as MDS