Scope classification: An instance-based learning algorithm with a rule-based characterisation

Abstract

Scope classification is a new instance-based learning (IBL) technique with a rule-based characterisation. Within the scope approach, the classification of an object o is based on the examples that are closer to o than every example labelled with another class. In contrast to standard distance-based IBL classifiers, scope classification relies on partial pre-orderings >o between examples, indexed by objects. Interestingly, the notion of closeness to o that is used characterises the classes predicted by all the rules that cover o and are relevant and consistent for the training set. Accordingly, scope classification is an IBL technique with a rule-based characterisation. Since rules do not have to be explicitly generated, the scope approach applies to classification problems where the number of rules prevents them from being exhaustively computed.