Comparing Simplification Procedures for Decision Trees on an Economics Classification

Abstract

Several commercial case-based reasoning (CBR) shells now use decision trees to index cases, including Remind (Cognitive Systems, Inc.), Kate (AcknoSoft), and The Easy Reasoner (The Haley Enterprise). These trees serve to expedite case retrieval and to generate comprehensible explanations of case retrieval behavior. Unfortunately, induced trees are often large and complex, reducing their explanatory power. To combat this problem, some commercial systems contain an option for simplifying decision trees. However, while many methods for simplifying decision trees exist, they have not been systematically compared and most have not been applied to case retrieval. This report builds on our previous survey and initial empirical comparison of tree simplification procedures. In this report, we compare them on a specific, challenging task that is the focus of an existing CBR effort. We examine which tree simplification procedures are useful for this task and suggest which ones should be included in a commercial CBR tool.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 11, 1998
Accession Number
ADA343512

Entities

People

  • David W. Aba
  • Leonard A. Breslow

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Classification
  • Computational Complexity
  • Computer Science
  • Data Mining
  • Data Sets
  • Databases
  • Feature Selection
  • Information Science
  • Information Systems
  • Machine Learning
  • Military Research
  • Reasoning
  • Standards
  • Test Sets

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Critical Infrastructure Protection in CBRN and WMD Threats.
  • Theoretical Analysis.