Visualization and the process of modeling
Andrew W. Crapo, Laurie B. Waisel, William A. Wallace, Thomas Reed Willemain · 2000
Models are artifacts used to better understand our world.In the context of mining data to create knowledge, the modeler is often faced with discovering and understanding relationships in data that have no apparent analog in the laws of physical science.Much of these data are increasingly abstract; not directly related to the physical, perceivable world.The use of sketches and diagrams as aids in problem solving and as a means of communication is as old as recorded history.Can visualization help us not only to discover the patterns and relationships in these data, but also to use newly discovered knowledge to build computational models?The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of the process of modeling and, based upon theories of cognition, show how visualization can assist in developing and assessing computational models for very large, high dimensional data sets.