Effectively extracting rules from trained neural networks based on the new measurement method of the classification power of attributes

The major problems of currently used approaches for extracting symbolic rules from trained neural networks are analyzed. The lack of efficient heuristic information is the fundamental reason that causes the low effectiveness of currently used approaches. In this paper, a new measurement method of the classification power of attributes on the basis of differential information of the trained neural networks is proposed, which is suitable for both continuous attributes and discrete attributes. Based on this new measurement method, a new approach for rule extraction from trained neural networks and classification problems with continuous attributes is proposed. The performance of the new approach is demonstrated by several computing cases. The experimental results prove that the approach proposed can improve the validity of the extracted rules remarkably compared with other rule extracting approaches, especially for the complicated classification problems.