Introduction to Reconstructability Analysis

This talk will introduce Reconstructability Analysis (RA), a data modeling methodology deriving from the 1960s work of Ross Ashby and developed in the systems community in the 1980s and afterwards. RA, based on information theory and graph theory, is a member of the family of methods known as ‘graphical models,’ which also include Bayesian networks and log-linear techniques. It is designed for exploratory modeling, although it can also be used for confirmatory hypothesis testing. RA can discover high ordinality and nonlinear interactions that are not hypothesized in advance. Its conceptual framework illuminates the relationships between wholes and parts, a subject that is central to systems science. The talk will present an overview of theory and applications of RA, and will introduce OCCAM, a RA software package developed at PSU that is web accessible and available for research. The web page, https://www.pdx.edu/sysc/research-discrete-multivariate-modeling, includes tutorials, access to the software, and a user’s manual. OCCAM has been uploaded to GitHub at: https://github.com/occam-ra/occa