Tackling Ant Colony Optimization Meta-Heuristic as Search Method in Feature Subset Selection Based on Correlation or Consistency Measures

Abstract

This paper introduces the use of an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm, called Ant System, as a search method in two wellknown feature subset selection methods based on correlation or consistency measures such as CFS (Correlation-based Feature Selection) and CNS (Consistency-based Feature Selection). ACO guides the search using a heuristic evaluator. Empirical results on twelve real-world classification problems are reported. Statistical tests have revealed that InfoGain is a very suitable heuristic for CFS or CNS feature subset selection methods with ACO acting as search method. The use of InfoGain is shown to be the significantly better heuristic over a range of classifiers. The results achieved by means of ACO-based feature subset selection with the suitable heuristic evaluator are better for most of the problems comparing with those obtained with CFS or CNS combined with Best First search.