A Cognitive Interpretation of Data Analysis
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Summary: This paper proposes a scientific model to explain the analysis process. We argue that data analysis is primarily a procedure to build understanding, and as such, it dovetails with the cognitive processes of the human mind. Data analysis tasks closely resemble the cognitive process known as sensemaking. We demonstrate how data analysis is a sensemaking task adapted to use quantitative data. This identification highlights a universal structure within data analysis activities and provides a foundation for a theory of data analysis. The competing tensions of cognitive compatibility and scientific rigour create a series of problems that characterise the data analysis process. These problems form a useful organising model for the data analysis task while allowing methods to remain flexible and situation dependent. The insights of this model are especially helpful for consultants, applied statisticians and teachers of data analysis.
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Mitigating Bias in Radiology Machine Learning: 1. Data Handling
Rouzrokh, P., Khosravi, B., Faghani, S., Moassefi, M., Vera Garcia, D. V., Singh, Y., Zhang, K., Conte, G. M., & Erickson, B. J. (2022) · Radiology: Artificial Intelligence · doi:10.1148/ryai.210290 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Grolemund, G., & Wickham, H.
- Affiliations
- Posit Software, PBC (United States) (US)
- Rice University (US)
- Venue
- International Statistical Review
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2014-04-11
- Volume
- 82
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 184-204
- ISSN
- 0306-7734 (ISSN-L)
- 1751-5823
- OpenAlex
- W2169066315
- Cited by
- 108
- References
- 94
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 5 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 4.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- International Statistical Review (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Data Visualization and Analytics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistics Education and Methodologies
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods and Applications
- Keywords
- data analysis, sensemaking, cognitive processes, scientific rigor, cognitive compatibility, numerical data, data analysis education, applied statistics
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