What is Attribute Reduction

Neuro-fuzzy hybridization is the oldest and most popular methodology in soft computing (Mitra & Hayashi, 2000). Neuro-fuzzy hybridization is known as Fuzzy Neural Networks, or Neuro-Fuzzy Systems (NFS) in the literature (Lin & Lee, 1996; Mitra & Hayashi, 2000). NFS is capable of abstracting a fuzzy model from given numerical examples using neural learning techniques to formulate accurate predictions on unseen samples. The fuzzy model incorporates the human-like style of fuzzy reasoning through a linguistic model that comprises of if-then fuzzy rules and linguistic terms described by membership functions. Hence, the main strength of NFS in modeling data is universal approximation (Tikk, Kóczy, & Gedeon, 2003) with the ability to solicit interpretable if-then fuzzy rules (Guillaume, 2001). However, modeling data using NFS involves the contradictory requirements of interpretability versus accuracy. Prevailingly, NFS that focused on accuracy employed optimization which resulted in membership functions that derailed from human-interpretable linguistic terms, or employed large number of if-then fuzzy rules on high-dimensional data that exceeded human level interpretation. This article presents a novel hybrid intelligent Rough set-based Neuro-Fuzzy System (RNFS). RNFS synergizes the sound concept of knowledge reduction from rough set theory with NFS. RNFS reinforces the strength of NFS by employing rough set-based techniques to perform attribute and rule reductions, thereby improving the interpretability without compromising the accuracy of the abstracted fuzzy model.