提出多维度对比因果图的方法,兼顾语义与结构相似性。
Measuring Similarity in Causal Graphs: A Framework for Semantic and Structural Analysis
- 融合语义与结构分析,全面评估因果图相似性
- 在2000张合成图上验证,各度量侧重不同方面
- 适合需要整合多方因果推断的科研人员
因果图广泛用于理解复杂系统,但不同研究视角常导致同一问题的图存在显著差异。比较因果图对评估假设、整合见解和解决分歧至关重要。随着AI工具用于自动生成因果图,这种需求愈发迫切,但不同平台和版本的输出仍不一致。现有方法多仅关注结构相似性,依赖变量名一致,忽视语义关系,难以准确衡量。本文通过调研40余种度量,筛选出9种(4种语义相似性指标、5种图核方法),结合简单案例分析其优劣。进一步基于参考图生成2000张合成因果图,结果表明每种度量反映不同层面的相似性,强调需综合使用多种指标。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Causal graphs are commonly used to understand and model complex systems. Researchers often construct these graphs from different perspectives, leading to significant variations for the same problem. Comparing causal graphs is, therefore, essential for evaluating assumptions, integrating insights, and resolving disagreements. The rise of AI tools has further amplified this need, as they are increasingly used to generate hypothesized causal graphs by synthesizing information from various sources such as prior research and community inputs, providing the potential for automating and scaling causal modeling for complex systems. Similar to humans, these tools also produce inconsistent results across platforms, versions, and iterations. Despite its importance, research on causal graph comparison remains scarce. Existing methods often focus solely on structural similarities, assuming identical variable names, and fail to capture nuanced semantic relationships, which is essential for causal graph comparison. We address these gaps by investigating methods for comparing causal graphs from both semantic and structural perspectives. First, we reviewed over 40 existing metrics and, based on predefined criteria, selected nine for evaluation from two threads of machine learning: four semantic similarity metrics and five learning graph kernels. We discuss the usability of these metrics in simple examples to illustrate their strengths and limitations. We then generated a synthetic dataset of 2,000 causal graphs using generative AI based on a reference diagram. Our findings reveal that each metric captures a different aspect of similarity, highlighting the need to use multiple metrics.
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