IMPRECISE CLASSIFICATION WITH CREDAL DECISION TREES

Abstract

In this paper, we present the following contributions: (i) an adaptation of a precise classifier to work on imprecise classification for cost-sensitive problems; (ii) a new measure to check the performance of an imprecise classifier. The imprecise classifier is based on a method to build simple decision trees that we have modified for imprecise classification. It uses the Imprecise Dirichlet Model (IDM) to represent information, with the upper entropy as a tool for splitting. Our new measure to compare imprecise classifiers takes errors into account. Thus far, this has not been considered by other measures for classifiers of this type. This measure penalizes wrong predictions using a cost matrix of the errors, given by an expert; and it quantifies the success of an imprecise classifier based on the cardinal number of the set of non-dominated states returned. To compare the performance of our imprecise classification method and the new measure, we have used a second imprecise classifier known as Naive Credal Classifier (NCC) which is a variation of the classic Naive Bayes using the IDM; and a known measure for imprecise classification.