Parameter modification for clustering criteria (Q1113591)

The more ways there are of understanding a clustering technique, the more effectively the results can be analyzed and used. I will give a general procedure, called parameter modification, to obtain from a clustering criterion a variety of equivalent forms of the criterion. These alternative forms reveal aspects of the technique that are not necessarily apparent in the original formulation. This procedure is successful in improving the understanding of a significant number of clustering techniques. The insight obtained will be illustrated by applying parameter modification to partitioning, mixture and fuzzy clustering methods, resulting in a unified approach to the study of these methods and a general algorithm for optimizing them.