A Role for Reasoning in Visual Analytics

Analysis supported by interactive visual interfaces is a complex process. It involves computational analytics (the visualization of both raw and derived data) and an analytical process which requires a human to extract knowledge from the data by directly interacting and manipulating both the visual and analytical components of the system. These two types of analytics are complementary and the goal of this paper is to understand interplay between the two. In this paper we discuss how a study of human reasoning and reasoning-supported cognitive processes complement the current emphasis on computational analysis and visualization. We define this process as reasoning analytics and present mechanisms by which this process may be studied.