The data exploration task can be divided into three interrelated subtasks: (i) feature selection, (ii) discovery, and (iii) interpretation. This paper describes an unsupervised discovery method with biases geared toward partitioning objects into clusters that improve interpretability. The algorithm, ITERATE, employs: (i) a data ordering scheme and (ii) an iterative redistribution operator to produce maximally cohesive and distinct clusters. Cohesion or intra-class similarity is measured in terms of the match between individual objects and their assigned cluster prototype. Distinctness or inter-class dissimilarity is measured by an average of the variance of the distribution matchbetween clusters. We demonstrate that interpretability, from a problem solving viewpoint, is addressed by theintra- and interclass measures. Empirical results demonstrate the properties of the discovery algorithm, and its applications to problem solving.

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ion and Interpretation Clustering Meaningful Clusters with Interpretations Figure 1: The Key Steps in Conceptual Clustering Systems grouping the data objects into clusters or groups based on the similarity of properties among the objects. The goal is to derive more general concepts that describe the problem solving task. The task of interpretation involves determining whether the induced concepts are useful for the problem solving tasks that the user is interested in. This task involves the examination of the intentional description of a class in the context of background knowledge about the domain. Overview of the Clustering Methods Traditional approaches to cluster analysis (numerical taxonomy) represent the objects to be clustered as points in a multi-dimensional metric space and adopt distance metrics, such as Euclidean and Mahalanobis measures, to define dissimilarity between objects. Cluster analysis methods take on one of two different forms: 1. parametric methods: they assume t...