Relation between concept lattice reduction and rough set reduction

One of the key problems of knowledge discovery is knowledge reduction. Rough set theory and the theory of concept lattices are two efficient tools for knowledge discovery. Attribute reduction based on rough set theory and the theory of concept lattices both have been researched. Since an information system, the data description of rough set theory, and a formal context, the data description of concept lattice theory, can be taken as the other one, the attribute reduction based on the same data base can be studied from these two perspectives, and researching their relation is significant. This paper mainly discusses the relation between concept lattice reduction and rough set reduction based on classical formal context, which will be meaningful for the relation research between these two theories, and for their knowledge discovery. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.