Why modeling?

Human mind can carry 7 ± 2 items of information in its short-term memory (Miller, 1956). A workable safe limit is ~ 5 straightforward variables, or 3 interacting feedback loops. Above this things begin to run together or be mixed up with each other.

A demand for simplicity is built into the human mind. We are too prone to try to find the one controlling factor in a complex situation.

The amount of information defining a biological system is vastly larger than the amount of information the human mind can handle simultaneously in its short-term memory. In such a situation the mind tends to simplify, linearise, and consider only a few of many variables that may be involved. This may be limiting when an experimenter interprets his/hers own experiments without help from modelling. Simulation forces its users to look at things that might not be examined in the course of more straightforward data interpretation (Garfinkel, 1980).


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Literature

Garfinkel D. Computer modeling, complex biological systems, and their simplifications. Am J Physiol. 1980; 239: R1-R6. doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.1980.239.1.R1.

Laruelle M. Modelling: when and why? Eur J Nucl Med. 1999; 26, 571-572. doi: 10.1007/s002590050423.

Miller GA. The magical number Seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychol Rev. 1956; 63:81-97.



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Updated at: 2014-01-29
Created at: 2011-11-22
Written by: Vesa Oikonen