An accurate comparison of methods for quantifying variable importance in artificial neural networks using simulated data

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are receiving greater attention in the ecological sciences as a powerful statistical modeling technique; however, they have also been labeled a “black box” because they are believed to provide little explanatory insight into the contributions of the independent variables in the prediction process. A recent paper published in Ecological Modelling [Review and comparison of methods to study the contribution of...