Non-Standard Parameter Adaptation for Exploratory Data Analysis : Springer : 9783642040047 : 3642040047 : 28 Sep 2009 : Exploratory data analysis, also known as data mining or knowledge discovery from databases, is typically based on the optimisation of a specific function of a dataset. Such optimisation is often performed with gradient descent or variations thereof. In this book, we first lay the groundwork by reviewing some standard clustering algorithms and projection algorithms before presenting various non-standard criteria for clustering. The family of algorithms developed are shown to perform better than the standard clustering algorithms on a variety of datasets. We then consider extensions of the basic mappings which maintain some topology of the original data space. Finally we show how reinforcement learning can be used as a clustering mechanism before turning to projection methods. We show that several varieties of reinforcement learning may also be used to define optima