Constructing three-way concept lattice based on the composite of classical lattices

Abstract

Three-way concept analysis provides a novel model for three-way decisions, and also extends the classical formal concept analysis, which has attracted many attentions in recent years. In order to construct three-way concept lattices, original formal context and its complement context need to be considered simultaneously. In this paper, a new method of constructing attribute-induced three-way (AE) and object-induced three-way (OE) concept lattices is proposed. Firstly, we introduce an AE-oriented composite operator and an OE-oriented composite operator that combine a pair of formal concepts coming from the concept lattices of original formal context and its complement context. Secondly, we define the candidate AE concepts and redundant AE concepts based on the AE-oriented composite operator, and define the candidate OE concepts and redundant OE concepts based on the OE-oriented composite operator, respectively. Finally, we propose an AE lattice construction algorithm and an OE lattice construction algorithm. Theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is simple and effective, and it is a useful supplement to current three-way concept lattice construction methods.