On the problem of error propagation in classifier chains for multi-label classification

Abstract

So-called classifier chains have recently been proposed as an appealing method for tackling the multi-label classification task. In this paper, we analyze the influence of a potential pitfall of the learning process, namely the discrepancy between the feature spaces used in training and testing: while true class labels are used as supplementary attributes for training the binary models along the chain, the same models need to rely on estimations of these labels when making a prediction. We provide first experimental results suggesting that the attribute noise thus created can affect the overall prediction performance of a classifier chain.