Using Constraints to Discover Sparse and Alternative Subgroup Descriptions

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteur principal: Bach, Jakob
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Bach, Jakob
author_facet Bach, Jakob
contents Subgroup-discovery methods allow users to obtain simple descriptions of interesting regions in a dataset. Using constraints in subgroup discovery can enhance interpretability even further. In this article, we focus on two types of constraints: First, we limit the number of features used in subgroup descriptions, making the latter sparse. Second, we propose the novel optimization problem of finding alternative subgroup descriptions, which cover a similar set of data objects as a given subgroup but use different features. We describe how to integrate both constraint types into heuristic subgroup-discovery methods. Further, we propose a novel Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) formulation of subgroup discovery as a white-box optimization problem, which allows solver-based search for subgroups and is open to a variety of constraint types. Additionally, we prove that both constraint types lead to an NP-hard optimization problem. Finally, we employ 27 binary-classification datasets to compare algorithmic and solver-based search for unconstrained and constrained subgroup discovery. We observe that heuristic search methods often yield high-quality subgroups within a short runtime, also in scenarios with constraints.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_01411
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Using Constraints to Discover Sparse and Alternative Subgroup Descriptions
Bach, Jakob
Machine Learning
Subgroup-discovery methods allow users to obtain simple descriptions of interesting regions in a dataset. Using constraints in subgroup discovery can enhance interpretability even further. In this article, we focus on two types of constraints: First, we limit the number of features used in subgroup descriptions, making the latter sparse. Second, we propose the novel optimization problem of finding alternative subgroup descriptions, which cover a similar set of data objects as a given subgroup but use different features. We describe how to integrate both constraint types into heuristic subgroup-discovery methods. Further, we propose a novel Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) formulation of subgroup discovery as a white-box optimization problem, which allows solver-based search for subgroups and is open to a variety of constraint types. Additionally, we prove that both constraint types lead to an NP-hard optimization problem. Finally, we employ 27 binary-classification datasets to compare algorithmic and solver-based search for unconstrained and constrained subgroup discovery. We observe that heuristic search methods often yield high-quality subgroups within a short runtime, also in scenarios with constraints.
title Using Constraints to Discover Sparse and Alternative Subgroup Descriptions
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.01411