On optimum choice of k in nearest neighbor classification

  • Authors:
  • Anil K. Ghosh

  • Affiliations:
  • Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203, B. T. Road, Kolkata 700108, India

  • Venue:
  • Computational Statistics & Data Analysis
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

A major issue in k-nearest neighbor classification is how to choose the optimum value of the neighborhood parameter k. Popular cross-validation techniques often fail to guide us well in selecting k mainly due to the presence of multiple minimizers of the estimated misclassification rate. This article investigates a Bayesian method in this connection, which solves the problem of multiple optimizers. The utility of the proposed method is illustrated using some benchmark data sets.