On detecting differences between groups

Understanding the differences between contrasting groups is a fundamental task in data analysis. This realization has led to the development of a new special purpose data mining technique, contrast-set mining. We undertook a study with a retail collaborator to compare contrast-set mining with existing rule-discovery techniques. To our surprise we observed that straightforward application of an existing commercial rule-discovery system, Magnum Opus, could successfully perform the contrast-set-mining task. This led to the realization that contrast-set mining is a special case of the more general rule-discovery task. We present the results of our study together with a proof of this conclusion. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.2.8 [Database Management]: Database Applications-data mining; I.2.6 [Artificial Intelligence]: Learning; H.3.3 [Information Storage and Retrieval]: Information Search and Retrieval Keywords Contrast-set discovery, Rule discovery, Retailing

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: KDD
• Authors: Geoffrey I. Webb, Shane M. Butler, Douglas A. Newlands
• Keywords: Contrast-set Mining, Data Mining, Data Mining Technique, Database Applications-Data Mining, KDD 2003