Induction of hybrid decision tree based on post-discretization strategy

摘要

By redefining test selection measure, we propose in this paper a new algorithm, Flexible NBTree, which induces a hybrid of decision tree and Naive Bayes. Flexible NBTree mitigates the negative effect of information loss on test selection by applying post-discretization strategy: at each internal node in the tree, we first select the test which is the most useful for improving classification accuracy, then apply discretization of continuous tests. The finial decision tree nodes contain univariate splits as regular decision trees, but the leaves contain Naive Bayesian classifiers. To evaluate the performance of Flexible NBTree, we compare it with NBTree and C4.5, both applying pre-discretization of continuous attributes. Experimental results on a variety of natural domains indicate that the classification accuracy of Flexible NBTree is substantially improved.