Data mining using cultural algorithms and regional schemata

In the paper we demonstrate how evolutionary search for functional optima can be used as a vehicle for data mining, that is, in the process of searching for optima in a multi-dimensional space we can keep track of the constraints that must be placed on related variables in order to move towards the optima. Thus, a side effect of evolutionary search can be the mining of constraints for related variables. We use a cultural algorithm framework to embed the search and store the results in regional schemata. An application to a large-scale real world archaeological data set is presented.