Summative evaluation
Revision as of 05:03, 26 September 2011 by Zeno Gantner (talk | contribs) (* Wikipedia: Summative assessment)
The goal of summative evaluation is to find out whether feature P causes quality X (regardless of the system that uses feature P). The usual summative approach is to test system A versus system B, where these systems only differ on feature P, and then measuring quality X to see if it differs between the two systems. Summative methods include A/B tests (field trials) and controlled experiments.
Researchers planning to do a user-centric recommender system evaluation need to be aware of the trade-offs between formative and summative evaluation.
