Informatica

Structurization of the sample covariance matrix reduces the number of the parameters to be estimated and, in a case the structurization assumptions are correct, improves small sample properties of a statistical linear classifier. Structured estimates of the sample covariance matrix are used to decorellate and scale the data, and to train a single layer perceptron classifier afterwards. In most from ten real world pattern classification problems tested, the structurization methodology applied together with the data transformations and subsequent use of the optimally stopped single layer perceptron resulted in a significant gain in comparison with the best statistical linear classifier – the regularized discriminant analysis.

Small training sample effects common in statistical classification and artificial neural network classifier design are discussed. A review of known small sample results are presented, and peaking phenomena related to the increase in the number of features and the number of neurons is discussed.