Methods and apparatus to categorize media impressions by age
Apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to categorize audience members by age. An example system includes a processor to execute instructions to: generate, an age-correction model by: at an initial node, splitting audience member records into child nodes based on an initial attribute-value pair; at the child nodes: calculating an effective quantity of audience member records based on the weight assigned to the corresponding child node; when the effective quantity of audience member records satisfies a minimum leaf size, splitting the corresponding child node into additional ones of the child nodes based on a corresponding child node attribute-value pair; and when the effective quantity of audience member records does not satisfy the minimum leaf size, designating the corresponding child node as a terminal node; and correct, based on the age-correction model, an age characteristic associated with a media impression.
1. A processor system, comprising:
a first memory including instructions; and
a processor to execute the instructions to:
generate audience member records by associating ages of audience members from a second memory of a first database proprietor at a first Internet domain to corresponding activity data obtained from a third memory of a second database proprietor at a second Internet domain;
assign a weight to corresponding audience member records, the weight being based on a quantity of audience members in a same age group as the corresponding audience member record;
generate, an age-correction model by:
at an initial node, splitting the corresponding audience member records into child nodes based on an initial attribute-value pair;
at a first child node of the child nodes:
calculating an effective quantity of audience member records of the first child node based on the weight assigned to the first child node;
when the effective quantity of audience member records satisfies a minimum leaf size, splitting the first child node into additional ones of the child nodes based on a corresponding child node attribute-value pair; and
when the effective quantity of audience member records of the first child node does not satisfy the minimum leaf size, designating the first child node as a terminal node;
generate probability density functions to infer probabilities reflecting underrepresented ages in the probability density functions, the probability density functions based on ones of the audience member records assigned to the terminal node, the terminal node including underrepresented age samples; and
correct, based on the age-correction model, an age characteristic associated with a media impression, the media impression indicative of a person being exposed to media presented by a media presentation device, the correcting to generate more accurate audience measurement information by including ages that are underrepresented in the probability density functions without consuming additional memory and processor resources to monitor additional audience members in the underrepresented ages.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is to assign the weight to the audience member records corresponding to the different age groups further by assigning, when the quantity of audience member records grouped within one of the age groups satisfies a first threshold, a neutral weight to the corresponding records in the one of the age groups.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is to assign the weight to the audience member records corresponding to the different age groups by assigning, when the quantity of the audience member records grouped within one of the age groups satisfies a second threshold, a maximum weight to the corresponding records in the one of the age groups.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is to assign the weight to the audience member records corresponding to the different age groups further by assigning, when the quantity of the audience member records grouped within one of the age groups satisfies a second threshold, a proportional weight between a neutral weight and a maximum weight to the corresponding records in the one of the age groups.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is to generate the audience member records based on survey data obtained from a plurality of panelists, and activity data corresponding to the plurality of panelists retrieved from the second database proprietor.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the media impression is logged by a server of the second database proprietor based on a network communication transmitted by a client device to report to the server of the second database proprietor that the media was accessed via the client device.
7. An apparatus comprising:
means for retrieving audience member records from a first memory of an audience measurement entity, the audience member records corresponding to different age groups, the audience member records including behavior attributes collected at a second memory of a database proprietor;
means for assigning a weight to corresponding ones of the audience member records, the weight being based on a quantity of audience members in a same age group as the audience member record; and
means for modeling ages to:
at an initial node, split the audience member records into child nodes based on an initial attribute-value pair;
at a first child node of the child nodes:
calculate an effective quantity of audience member records of the first child node based on the weight assigned to the first child node;
when the effective quantity of audience member records satisfies a minimum leaf size, split the first child node into additional ones of the child nodes based on a corresponding child node attribute-value pair; and
when the effective quantity of audience member records of the first child node does not satisfy the minimum leaf size, designate the first child node as a terminal node;
generate probability density functions to infer probabilities reflecting underrepresented ages in the probability density functions, the probability density functions based on ones of the audience member records assigned to the terminal node, the terminal node including underrepresented age samples;
determine an age characteristic of a person exposed to media presented by a media presentation device; and
generate, based on the age characteristic, a more accurate audience measurement information by including ages that are underrepresented in the probability density functions without consuming additional memory and processor resources to monitor additional audience members in the underrepresented ages.
8. The apparatus as defined in claim 7 , wherein the means for assigning a weight is to assign the weight to the audience member records corresponding to the different age groups, by assigning, when the quantity of audience member records grouped within one of the age groups satisfies a first threshold, a neutral weight to the corresponding records in the one of the age groups.
9. The apparatus as defined in claim 7 , wherein the means for assigning a weight is to assign the weight to the audience member records corresponding to the different age groups, by assigning, when the quantity of the audience member records grouped within one of the age groups satisfies a second threshold, a maximum weight to the corresponding records in the one of the age groups.
10. The apparatus as defined in claim 7 , wherein the means for assigning a weight is to assign the weight to the audience member records corresponding to the different age groups, by assigning, when the quantity of the audience member records grouped within one of the age groups satisfies a second threshold, a proportional weight between a neutral weight and a maximum weight to the corresponding records in the one of the age groups.
11. The apparatus as defined in claim 7 , wherein the means for generating a record is to generate the audience member records based on survey data obtained from a plurality of panelists, and activity data corresponding to the plurality of panelists retrieved from a database proprietor.
12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
generate audience member records by associating ages of audience members from a first memory of a first database proprietor at a first Internet domain to the corresponding activity data obtained from a second memory of a second database proprietor at a second Internet domain;
assign a weight to corresponding audience member records, the weight being based on a quantity of audience members in a same age group as the corresponding audience member record;
generate, an age-correction model by:
at an initial node, splitting the corresponding audience member records into child nodes based on an initial attribute-value pair;
at a first child node of the child nodes:
calculating an effective quantity of audience member records of the first child node based on the weight assigned to the first child node;
when the effective quantity of audience member records satisfies a minimum leaf size, splitting the first child node into additional ones of the child nodes based on a corresponding child node attribute-value pair; and
when the effective quantity of audience member records of the first child node does not satisfy the minimum leaf size, designating the first child node as a terminal node;
generate probability density functions to infer probabilities reflecting underrepresented ages in the probability density functions, the probability density functions based on ones of the audience member records assigned to the terminal node, the terminal node including underrepresented age samples; and
correct, based on the age-correction model, an age characteristic associated with a media impression, the media impression indicative of a person being exposed to media presented by a media presentation device, the correcting to generate more accurate audience measurement information by including ages that are underrepresented in the probability density functions without consuming additional memory and processor resources to monitor additional audience members in the underrepresented ages.
13. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 12 , wherein to assign the weighs to the audience member records corresponding to the different age groups, the instructions, when executed cause the machine to assign, when the quantity of audience member records grouped within one of the age groups satisfies a first threshold, a neutral weight to the corresponding records in the one of the age groups.
14. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 12 , wherein to assign the weight to the audience member records corresponding to the different age groups, the instructions, when executed cause the machine to assign, when the quantity of the audience member records grouped within one of the age groups satisfies a second threshold, a maximum weight to the corresponding records in the one of the age groups.
15. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 12 , wherein to assign the weight to the audience member records corresponding to the different age groups, the instructions, when executed cause the machine to assign, when the quantity of the audience member records grouped within one of the age groups satisfies a second threshold, a proportional weight between a neutral weight and a maximum weight to the corresponding records in the one of the age groups.
16. The computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 12 , wherein the instructions, when executed cause the machine to generate the audience member records based on survey data obtained from a plurality of panelists, and activity data corresponding to the plurality of panelists retrieved from the second database proprietor.