The Iris dataset revisited. A partial ordering study

Abstract

The well-known Iris data set has been studied applying partial ordering methodology. Previous studies, e.g., applying supervision learning such as neural networks (NN) and support-vector machines (SVM) perfectly distinguish between the three Iris subgroups, i.e., Iris Setosa, Iris Versicolour and Iris Virginica, respectively, in contrast to, e.g., K-means clustering that only separates the full Iris data set in two clusters. In the present study applying partial ordering methodology further discloses the difference between the different classification methods. The partial ordering data appears to be in perfect agreement with the results of the K-means clustering, which means that the clear separation in the three Iris subsets applying NN and SVM is neither recognized by clustering nor by partial ordering methodology.