Generalized Linear and Quadratic Discriminant Functions Using Robust Estimates

Abstract

Abstract Two new methods of constructing robust linear and quadratic discriminant functions are introduced. The first is a generalization of Fisher's procedure for finding a linear discriminant function. It places less weight on those observations that are far from the overlapping regions of the two populations. The second new method substitutes M-estimates of the means and the covariance matrices into the usual expressions for the linear and quadratic discriminant functions. Monte Carlo results indicate lower misclassification probabilities for these schemes compared to Fisher's linear discriminant function in cases of heavy-tailed or contaminated distributions.