Real-World Data Mining: Applied Business Analytics and Decision Making

5. Data Mining Algorithms

Data mining methods, especially the ones used to build predictive models, are derived from either traditional statistical techniques/algorithms or from contemporary machine learning techniques/systems. While statistical techniques are well established and theoretically sound, machine learning techniques are more practical and accurate (according to a wealth of comparative studies published in the literature). The statistical techniques that made the biggest impact in the evolution of data mining include discriminant analysis, linear regression, and logistic regression. The most popular machine learning techniques used in numerous successful data mining projects include nearest neighbor, artificial neural networks, and ...