An Adaptive Discretization in the ACDT Algorithm for Continuous Attributes

Abstract

Decision tree induction has been widely used to generate classifiers from training data through a process of recursively splitting the data space. In the case of training on continuous-valued data, the associated attributes must be discretized in advance or during the learning process. The commonly used method is to partition the attribute range into two or several intervals using single or a set of cut points. One inherent disadvantage in these methods is that the use of sharp cut points makes the induced decision trees sensitive to noise. To overcome this problem this paper presents an alternative method called adaptive discretization based on Ant Colony Decision Tree (ACDT) approach. Experimental results showed that, by using that methodology, better classification accuracy has been obtained in both training and testing data sets in majority of cases concerning the classical decision tree constructed by ants. It suggests that the robustness of decision trees could be improved by means of this approach.