グラフィカル接近法の最近の発展

抄録

Statistics has retained steady relationships with the graphics for a long time, but we will not mention about the past, In this paper, we will evaluate and consider the present state of work in the field of statistical graphics including graphical methods used in the process of statistical data analysis, graphical communication of information, recent research and dissemination of statistical graphics, and reflect on the future. Paying attention to the development of recent statistical graphics, we especially review on following themes, namely, (1)cooperation between formal methods and graphical methods, (2)computer-oriented approaches, (3)advances in exploratory data analysis and dinamic graphics, (4)development of philosophical basis of graphical methods. Many methods that are called statistical graphics are proposed and available. Although, in order that these methods can be accepted and play useful roles, it seems that various conditions such as the celebrity of the proponent(his achievement, thought and background), fashion of the times, and maturity(adaptability of the surroundings). The main points we wish to emphasize in this paper are summarized as follows. First, to compare to the formal methods, graphical methods have many advantages as well as some shortages. Thus, it is necessary to understand the properties of each graphical method and to use it properly in the process of statistical data analysis. Second, we must take into considerations the “philosophical context of visual perception”, namely a series of process which starts from “outward apperance” and attains to inner looking. It is necessary to pay great attention to the aspects of “ conception” or“ discovery” for graphical methods to play the creative role that bring forth the productive findings. Third, many and various graphical methods have been developed keeping step with the development and evolution of computer and computing environ ment. Thus, it is urgently needed to standardize and systematize these graphical methods and gain experiences of applying them so that users of them can utilize the right method in the right place.