10.4 Discussion

10.4.1 Three modes of model building

• Recall the three major modes of model building: Prediction, Description, Explanation.
• What is the appropriate mode for each of the following questions?

1. What is going on?
2. Why is something going on?
3. What is going to happen?

• Think of a research question you are interested in. Which mode is it aligned with?

10.4.2 The statistical modeling process in different modes

• How does the modeling goal influence each of the following steps in the statistical modeling process?

  • Choice of variables and transformation

  • Choice of model (ols regression, neural nets, random forest, etc.)

  • Model evaluation