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Cobweb (clustering)
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<h2 id="the-cobweb-algorithm">The COBWEB Algorithm</h2> <i>COBWEB</i>(<i>root</i>, <i>record</i>): Input: A COBWEB node <i>root</i>, an instance to insert <i>record</i> <i>if</i> <i>root</i> has no children <i>then</i> <i>children</i> := {<i>copy</i>(<i>root</i>)} <i>newcategory</i>(<i>record</i>) \\ adds child with record’s feature values. <i>insert</i>(<i>record</i>, <i>root</i>) \\ update root’s statistics <i>else</i> <i>insert</i>(<i>record</i>, <i>root</i>) <i>for</i> <i>child</i> <i>in</i> <i>root</i>’s children <i>do</i> calculate Category Utility for <i>insert</i>(<i>record</i>, <i>child</i>), set <i>best1</i>, <i>best2</i> children w. best CU. <i>end for</i> <i>if</i> <i>newcategory</i>(<i>record</i>) yields best CU then <i>newcategory</i>(<i>record</i>) <i>else</i> <i>if</i> <i>merge</i>(<i>best1</i>, <i>best2</i>) yields best CU then <i>merge</i>(<i>best1</i>, <i>best2</i>) <i>COBWEB</i>(<i>root</i>, <i>record</i>) <i>else if</i> <i>split</i>(<i>best1</i>) yields best CU then <i>split</i>(<i>best1</i>) <i>COBWEB</i>(<i>root</i>, <i>record</i>) <i>else</i> <i>COBWEB</i>(<i>best1</i>, <i>record</i>) <i>end if</i> <i>end</i> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://github.com/Teachable-AI-Lab/cobweb">Working python implementation of COBWEB</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Fisher, Douglas (1987). "Knowledge acquisition via incremental conceptual clustering". Machine Learning. 2 (2): 139–172. doi:10.1007/BF00114265. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF00114265" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF00114265</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Fisher, Douglas H. (July 1987). "Improving inference through conceptual clustering". Proceedings of the 1987 AAAI Conferences. AAAI Conference. Seattle Washington. pp. 461–465. <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Wayne Iba and Pat Langley. "Cobweb models of categorization and probabilistic concept formation". In Emmanuel M. Pothos and Andy J. Wills (ed.). Formal approaches in categorization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 253–273. ISBN 9780521190480. <a href="9780521190480" target="_blank">9780521190480</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>