Learning valued preference structures for solving classification problems

This paper introduces a new approach to classification which combines pairwise decomposition techniques with ideas and tools from fuzzy preference modeling. More specifically, our approach first decomposes a polychotomous classification problem involving in classes into an ensemble of binary problems, one for each ordered pair of classes. The corresponding classifiers are trained on the relevant subsets of the (transformed) original training data. In the classification phase, a new query is submitted to every binary learner. The output of each classifier is interpreted as a fuzzy degree of preference for the first in comparison with the second class. By combining the outputs of all classifiers, one thus obtains a fuzzy preference relation which is taken as a point of departure for the final classification decision. This way, the problem of classification is effectively reduced to a problem of decision making based on a fuzzy preference relation. Corresponding techniques, which have been investigated quite intensively in the field of fuzzy set theory, hence become amenable to the task of classification. In particular, by decomposing a preference relation into a strict preference, an indifference, and an incomparability relation, this approach allows one to quantify different types of uncertainty in classification and thereby supports sophisticated classification and postprocessing strategies. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.