A Short Tour of the Predictive Modeling Process

Abstract

To begin Part I of this work, we present a simple example that illustrates the broad concepts of model building. Section 2.1 provides an overview of a fuel economy data set for which the objective is to predict vehicles' fuel economy based on standard vehicle predictors such as engine displacement, number of cylinders, type of transmission, and manufacturer. In the context of this example, we explain the concepts of “spending” data, estimating model performance, building candidate models, and selecting the optimal model (Section 2.2).